I've Fallen And I Can't Get Up
by justdi
Summary: Sequel to Blood in the Viewfinder. Read that one first! Asami and Akihito are two hard-working men. Akihito deals with issues he's kept bottled. Asami deals with feelings he's kept bottled. Will master/pet have a meeting of the minds? Or are they all out of their minds? livejournal - mistressdi
1. Chapter 1

I've Fallen (And I Can't Get Up)  
(sequel to Blood in the Viewfinder)

To begin with, Oyabun was dead. In celebration, Asami reluctantly hung up his pirate's hat, and bought himself a brand-new extra spacious five bedroom mansion with a view of the Tokyo skyline (a requirement) and paid for it, in cash. The new mansion even had that new mansion smell. Whatever that smelled like. Most likely it smelled like money.

It seemed Kirishima really did have a head for numbers (or numbers floating in his head) and Asami's stocks paid dividends far greater than any of the more surreptitious activities that were profitable in the past….pre anti-Yakuza law days. Ahhhh, the good old days, when he did bad things, not that he still didn't do bad things, they just….weren't _AS BAD_ anymore. That still didn't mean he was a good guy though.

Anyway, the first thing he did after he rose from the ashes was shave. And underneath that beard, which had grown to the point where he had to sip miso soup out of a straw or else find little black hairs floating at the bottom of his bowl, he found a man staring back at him, a man he had thought he had forgotten, the visage of his late father.

"Kirishima!" He yelled, and immediately heard the swish of Kirishima's feet on the stone floor of his new purchase coming quickly towards him, gun raised, ready to take out whatever spider that might be crawling on the ceiling of Asami's expansive bedroom suite.

"Yes, Sparrow? I mean, Asami-sama?" He said, and it might have looked like he was smiling to the casual observer and of course, you'd be wrong. Perfect secretaries/bodyguards never, ever smile (that's rule #1).

"Do you think I'm getting old, Kirishima?" He asked, and it sounded like a woman asking her husband if she thought this dress made her look fat.

"Of course not, you're as healthy as a horse." Good answer! One hundred points for Kirishima.

"I'm not talking about my health, I'm talking about my face. I swear, I spent months at sea, and now I have wrinkles." He said, taking a look in the mirror, his fingers pulling at tiny unseen lines around his eyes. "I should have Botox or something."

"If you're concerned about it, I will look into it." And the corners of his mouth threatened to rise just slightly. (See Rule #1)

"I'm not concerned, I'm just….ok…I'm concerned." His brow furrowed, which he poked at with his fingers to smooth.

"Since when?" He asked. Seriously, if he smiled anymore, he was the one going to get wrinkles.

"Since…I saw myself in the mirror. I haven't had a good look at myself in months, the mirror on the boat steams up, so all I get is this blurry outline. And when I shaved off my beard….good god man, I felt faint."

"I think you look the same as always." False. He wasn't wearing a three-piece suit, he was in his boxers and robe. (Growl)

"That's because you never did get new glasses." True. He just never got around to it.

"What would you like me to do, Asami-sama?" He asked, hiding his face behind some paperwork, because seriously, he was stifling a smile so broad his face hurt. (Rule #1 again).

"Other than get new glasses?" He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Turn back time? Develop a youth elixir? Make me immortal?"

_"_Children are the only form of immortality that we can be sure of_, _to quote Peter Ustinov." And he gave his glasses a philosophical shove up his nose.

"Those rugrats? Sticky-fingered ankle biters? Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting? Bite your tongue, and I mean that literally." And he smirked. (Seriously, was that smirk permanent or something?)

"You can always make a donation at a local sperm bank, and see what develops." And that sounded so witty to Kirishima (even though it wasn't) he thought he'd write it down in his journal of valuable quotes and sayings that he kept handy. "I can think of worse things than children, Asami-sama."

"I can't." He exhaled, which sounded like a sigh, but it wasn't. He stared at his reflection again. "Maybe I've spent too much time in the sun."

"That could be, Asami-sama."

"What's on my agenda today? And please don't tell me I have to meet with that skank Sudoh. If he looks at me one more time with those "come-hither" eyes, I'm going to throttle him."

"You could always fire him."

"He's the cousin of the Prime Minister. I really don't want any more enemies than I already have."

"Step-Cousin…three-times removed, on his ex-wife's side."

"It's all relative," and he grinned at that witty remark. Taking out a toothpick and rolling between his fingers he asked, "So, the agenda?"

"Today's agenda includes: Meeting with the contractor at Club Sion, he wants you to approve the paint colors for the VIP room, a luncheon with your Investor's Club, authorization of a new contract with Dogo group followed by," he lowered his voice to a whisper, "teawithyourmother."

"Busy day….so….tea with my mother, huh? Don't think you got that one by me while you rambled on." He rebuked.

"I'm sorry, but she insisted. You haven't seen her since before the boat incident. For a while there, I think she really believed in your demise.

"I'm glad you straightened her out. I guess I need to smooth things over seeing as I missed her 70th birthday party."

"Just FYI. She has a list of potential ladies for an omiai….rich, beautiful ladies, just thought I'd warn you, so you can easily change the subject."

"Why do people have to meddle in my private life, and make problems for me?"

"Because they have nothing better to do?" He answered quickly.

"Gossip is the lowest form of discourse."

"Is that a Biblical quote?"

"No, Jacqueline Bisset. Now that woman, I would marry." He flicked the toothpick in his mouth. Cherry flavor. . .which didn't taste like cherries at all, more like a fruity chemical flavor. "We need to stop at Starbuck's first."

"The Starbuck's in Otemachi on Chiyoda?" Kirishima asked.

"Aren't there five on Chiyoda?" Asami asked.

"There's eight now." He replied.

"The one in the Mitsubishi building, then." Asami said.

"The one with the barista with a wart on her nose?" Kirishima asked.

"That witch? She gives me the creeps, she always flashes me the evil eye when I give her my lengthy order."

"She should serve you with a smile, Asami-sama." And he pushed up his glasses with one finger. "That is her job."

"She did smile at me once, as I recall, when I complimented her barista skills. For a girl, she has a cute smile, warts and all."

"Do you have a crush on your barista?"

"I like all Starbuck's baristas. Something about that little green apron does things to me." New fantasy….Akihito wearing the green apron, with nothing underneath, calling out his order from behind the counter and saying things like _Asami-sama, don't burn yourself, that coffee is really hooootttt. _And then, he would lick the whipped cream off the top of his Frappuccino while posing seductively and blushing like a neon sign. Asami was a horny old man, trapped in a horny teenager's body.

He coughed. If he was (a lot) younger, he'd have a nosebleed. "Look into Starbuck's stock. Coffee…it seems, is the new drug of choice."

"It's the breakfast of champions. That and cigarettes, and you have a nice meal."

"Remind me to throw out that book of quotes later."

Finally dressed, in his perfect fitting tweed three-piece suit, off to boring work Asami went, in his shiny black limo. Why? Because Asami had developed an affection for the vehicle since he and Akihito did the nasty in the backseat almost two months ago. If he was alone, he'd be dry humping the seat. The constant reminder did things to his overactive lust-filled imagination, since he was working on another good fantasy (besides the Starbuck's one-shot) to jack-off to in the shower later. This one involved Akihito saving Asami (who was a handsome prince) from drowning and then finding out Akihito was a mermaid…merman….merboy? Why did this story sound familiar? And why was everyone in his fantasy singing and combing their hair with forks? And how was he supposed to have sex with a fish's lower half? Don't answer that.

"When is Akihito back?" He asked, for like the fifth time in the last twenty-four hours.

"The day after tomorrow." Amazing, he didn't show any irritation from that repeated question. Two-hundred points for Kirishima.

"Huh. Two months flew by fast." He said nonchalantly, even though they didn't. Everyday he'd ask Kirishima what day the boy would be back, and everyday Kirishima would give him the countdown, like he was waiting for Santa. A rather skinny Santa, with two small sacks, instead of one big one. You'd think Asami had something wrong with him, like he was in love or something. But as everyone knew, that would be silly, because he wasn't that kind of man.

"How is he? Any word?" He hoped he wasn't lying in a ditch somewhere or being eaten by panthers. He was the only one who could eat Akihito like a smorgasbord. As his master, he had rights, you know.

"No news is good news, as the saying goes."

Asami did something he never does, ever. He rolled his eyes. "That really isn't helpful." He said with annoyance, sipping his triple venti three-pump vanilla skinny 180° latte no whip, slowly, wondering why the hell he kept Kirishima around. Oh yeah, that's right, because he was the one who did all the work he didn't want to do, which was pretty much all of it. He was to busy standing around, looking cool, chewing on toothpicks, drinking Starbucks, while thinking up raunchy fantasies starring a tsundere Akihito.

This was going to be a long two days.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The nightmare woke him, and swallowing his fear like a piece of unchewed meat, he punished his eyes with his thumbs, willing the vision to go away. Keir. He had dreamed of Keir, again.

And of course, it was raining, once more. This made sense; he was in the very heart of a rainforest. As a drop of warm rain dripped from an unseen hole in his tent onto his grown out hair, Akihito groaned and sat up. It was one a.m. He didn't need to look at his clock, he just knew. He knew because that's when his body said, _enough already, just give up tossing and turning and go read a book or something, you moron. _And every night, he'd listen and read a book, take some notes, mess with his leg, or think about home…think about Asami, think about Keir.

The fear started the moment he arrived in this sticky, humid, sizzling jungle, and was reminded almost at the same time, of Afghanistan. The terrain was different, the targets were different, the personnel was different, he was different, but the feel was the same. Playful banter and joke-telling around the fire, eyes huddled together over maps, hands working together to make a meal….that feel, that he could remember even though the exact memories of Afghanistan, the people he worked with in Afghanistan, were gone.

And now, some memories were coming back. And with them, that fear.

The first night of nightmares turned into two nights, into a week, into a month, until every night was filled with bad dreams . . . every night became a battle between the devil called sleep and himself. Sleep is only a devil if you don't get enough of it.

His parents weren't here to bat the bad dreams away, Asami wasn't here to distract him with mind blowing sex, and Keir wasn't here…Keir was dead, Keir wouldn't be coming.

He groaned again and reached for his canteen, which he found empty. Foregoing the tedious process of putting on his prosthetic, he opted for his crutches and hobbled out into the camp to refill it. It took him fifteen minutes, and he almost tripped three times on branches before reaching the water jug which was only really a short walk down a well-worn path from his tent.

He swallowed his fear again and put on a happy face.

"Are you up again, Aki-kun?" A woman's voice said softly in the dark, it was the voice of Motomi, his co-worker and now good friend. "Insomnia again?"

"No, just thirsty." He whispered back, although he was lying, he seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "I forgot to fill my canteen earlier."

"Don't lie, the bags under your eyes tell a different story." She was a girl, a woman really, and like all women, had a sixth-sense about these things.

"Never mind. Anything from the camera traps? We're running out of time."

In the glow of the lantern, her head cocked slightly, as if pondering something. "Nothing, again…nothing. If the Brazilian government weren't such assholes, we could extend our trip, although I don't want to, anyway."

"Can't be helped. I'm up, I can take watch for you, if you want to call your boyfriend, now would be the time, seeing as the rest of the crew is asleep." He said.

"Fiancé." She corrected, and her eyes had that dreamy appearance of a girl in love, which looked like she was half-asleep and drunk, a sort of glassy eyed appearance.

"Since when?" He asked, afraid he missed something at dinner, which wouldn't be surprising, given that there were at least five languages being spoken at once. He and Motomi were the only ones who spoke Japanese, luckily she spoke more English then he did, and her English was fit for polite company. He only knew how to order food from McDonald's and cuss, not very useful.

"Since I talked to him an hour ago. I think it's the first proposal by sat-phone, at least the first I know of." And she grinned, her dimples appeared and then her smile radiated to her eyes. She was so cute when she smiled. If he wasn't….if she wasn't…..well, things might be a little different.

He grinned. "Congratulations. Your fiancé is a lucky man."

"Thanks." She said, giggling, and flipped her hair out of her eyes. "I hope he realizes it."

"I hope you're blessed with lots of kids, so they can come visit me, and call me Uncle." Her laughter was contagious; her smiles made him forget his worries about sleep deprivation and nightmare plagued thoughts.

She blushed. "You should get married and have a bunch of kids of your own, seems like you would be a good dad."

He scratched the back of his neck. "Too busy with my career, besides, I'm too young." Plus he didn't have a uterus and Asami hated kids and….well, that was that.

"Seriously? You're only a year younger than me." She said softly. "You're a nice guy, Aki-kun, successful and cute."

"Well, there is the whole peg-leg thing, I don't make a good dance partner." He said bitterly. _And I'm gay_….he wanted to say.

"Don't use that as an excuse with me, I've seen you climb trees like a squirrel monkey." Her expertise was in primates, so she was allowed to make that comparison. "But I think I might take you up on that offer to take over, I'm exhausted."

"You might as well. . .it will take me forever to get back to my tent anyway."

She snickered, but then stopped quickly. "I shouldn't laugh."

"Someone's got to." He replied and took over her chair and stared, unblinking at the remote picture viewer, hoping for something to appear to break up the night, something other than the dull gray lifeless picture before him. "Good night, Motomi. See you in the morning."

She kissed his cheek. "Lack of sleep is making you melancholy, Aki-kun, I want to see your sunshine again."

He laughed softly, not willing to wake his sleeping companions. "Aren't photographers supposed to be brooding and miserable?"

"You're thinking of writers." And she winked. "See you in the morning."

He swallowed his fear, had been swallowing it all along. And no one knew but him.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

If Asami was the kind of man to kiss his mother on the cheek, he would be doing so. But he wasn't that kind of man…primarily having to do with the smell of her perfume. Sickly sweet, it reminded him of the flowers growing in her garden, the same garden where he came upon his father in an incestuous embrace with his aunt, his father's half-sister as if the half mattered. He had hoped he was mistaken, had hoped there was a misunderstanding, but when dear auntie yanked his father's tie and pulled him into the tool shed, there was no room for error. His father and his aunt were lovers. And that was just one of his family's skeletons, one of many.

Furthermore, he was not in the mood to get slapped by her dragon claws. So even though he probably deserved a good cuff for missing her birthday, he opted for a polite bow from a safe distance instead.

"Ru-chan, I see you've decided to grace me with your presence." And she had the tone of the Emperor chewing out Darth Vader, except she was smiling while she said it, and her voice sounded like the tinkling of bells, high and lyrical.

"Hello, mother. How are you feeling?" He asked, kneeling down onto his thin futon, still feeling the dark wooden floor underneath his knees. Even in western clothes, he didn't look out of place in the traditional Japanese setting. Feeling like he'd been called into his sensei's office for a scolding, he clenched his already sweating fists and rested them on his thighs. Head bowed slightly, he avoided his mother's guilt-filled gaze. He may be a manly man, but his mother could bring out the little child in him, just by glancing his way with her cold, dark eyes.

"Why do you ask? Do I look sickly to you?" And she smirked, and now we know where Asami got it. There had to be an origin story to that particular facial tic, and this was it.

"You look the same as always, very beautiful." And of course, she was beautiful. She had the same gold eyes as Asami. The same way of presenting herself, and the same sharp tongue, so sharp that you could use it cut cheese.

"Don't mock me with your sweet words." She said in an insipid tone. She poured his tea, in an ultra-polite, self-assured manner, with calculating movements, as if pouring tea was an art form, which it is. "You will pick one of the candidates for an omiai, won't you? It would put my heart at ease to see you settled down and raising a family." With two beautiful hands, which looked far younger than her age, she picked up his cup and eyed him with veiled contempt. "I am seventy, in case you forgot." And with that statement, she gracefully placed the tea cup in his waiting hands, the sleeves of her black kimono brushing against his fingers.

"And yet the flame in your heart has not grown dim." He said wisely, which only brought him a heated glare, which he felt rather than witnessed, since he refused to raise his head.

"You did not answer my question. A spoiled child you are, Asami. I was not stern enough with you, my heart continues to weep for the future." She said with mock sadness in her voice. She was the mistress of guilt trips, but he was the master of guile.

"Have you been taking in the baths? Your skin is quite lovely." He said, changing the subject.

And of course, she saw right through his ruse. "Do you think I'm senile? Do you like to confuse an old lady?" If she wasn't so gracious, she'd be yelling, but the tone of her voice implied that she was angry. "Do you not trust my judgment in picking out a candidate? Or are you waiting for the right girl to come along, and trust in the existence of love?"

"I'm sure any of the women you've selected are of the highest caliber, mother."

"Then pick one. Meet with her. You're 36 years old, the only reason you remain a candidate for an omiai is because of your wealth. Otherwise….." Great, he had to be reminded of his age.

"I would consider being removed as a candidate, given my age. I would rather not have my path chosen for me."

"You would rather I die before seeing a grandchild? Would you rather have a blank space after our family name in the register? Would you have your wealth swallowed by the government should you leave no heir?" Next stop, guilt city, population….one.

"I have made provisions in case of my eventual death, which, I plan to avoid…or at least delay as long as possible."

And if she was the kind of woman to snicker at her son's backhanded remark, she would, but she wasn't that kind of woman. "And I'm sure that includes donations to all the prostitutes you've frequented over the years?" She sneered.

Asami's mouth twitched. "I'm still the head of the family, mother." He warned and leaned back when she raised her palm, which instead of smacking him, rested on her fan.

"So I should temper my tongue, is that what you're implying?"

"I would never be so impudent as to suggest that, mother, however, the decision on marriage…"

"Then tell me your reasons for refusal." She interrupted. "You know your father and I met through an omiai, we made a family, and continued the line."

"I brought you a gift mother. I deeply apologize," and he placed the small black jewelry box in front of him and pushed it with two hands towards her, "for missing your birthday." He then bowed low, his head almost brushing the floor, which smelled of lacquer and bitterness.

"I would rather receive an acceptance to my request, which I don't find forthcoming from your lips." She said, and he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, as if a ghost was blowing on them . . . the ghost of his father, most likely, coming to share in his mother's indignation.

He raised his head. "I will not be taking your guilt trip, mother." He said with narrowed eyes.

"Your interpretation of my words are yours alone." He lowered his head eyes again, and focused on the tea cup in his hands.

"I find poison in your words, mother." He replied.

"I only speak the truth." With graceful movements, she picked up his gift with two pale hands, and positioned it gently into the hands of a waiting attendant, who cupped it carefully, before retreating into the shadows, ignored and forgotten. "And perhaps, the truth is, you have someone you care for….someone, perhaps, not worthy of your attention? Could that be your reason for refusal?"

Asami raised his head and her eyes flickered with displeasure at his blank, emotionless face. "My reasons are my own. But if it would make you happy, I will attend an omiai. And I hope, mother, this will be the end to the discussion." He finished his tea and sat it down carefully, making no sound as he set it on the polished tray. "Consider it as repentance for my absence at your 70th birthday celebration, it couldn't be helped."

"I see." She smiled slightly, the edge of her lips just barely curving. "I hope you will continue to do your best, son. And I thank you for considering my request." She bowed slightly, and rose to go, her feet making no sound on the glossy floor.

Mother – 1

Asami – 0

He lost.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Asami was dressed, impeccably today, just like every other day (except on casual Fridays when he didn't wear a tie), except today, a three-piece suit wouldn't do, not for this occasion. Today, he donned a morning coat and ascot, in a light gray color with gray accents. His favorite color was gray, in fact. You'd think it would be another color, like blood red, but then you'd be wrong and then you would have to surrender a pinky to the pinky fairy.

Anyway, no matter what you called it. . .ash, ashen, charcoal, dove gray, gunmetal, iron gray, lead, mousy, oyster, pearl, powder grey, sere, silver, or slate, in the end, it was all gray to him and gray to everyone else, except the color blind.

Someday, his body will turn to ash, and it will be…the most perfect gray color. But that day was a long way off, centuries off, if he had his way. And he usually got his way. Call it immortality, call it reincarnation, but somehow, his story would be written again and again in different forms, with different people, but it would still be him, still be his men, still be a story of violence and redemption, of hardship and fortune, of yin and yang….of Romeo and his Juliet.

Today was omiai day. Even though he didn't care what impression he made on this young lady, he still dressed for the occasion. He did have some sense of decorum, not much, but some. Shoot, the only thing keeping him from running down the street in a loincloth, his penis flapping in the breeze like a flag, was decorum.

If he didn't uphold the family honor, not that his family had any to begin with, his mother would slap his knuckles with a fan. It looked like it wouldn't hurt, but she had the strength of an old bore, tough and inedible. And that slap stung, like a bee, rather than bruise, like a punch in the gut. Ouch.

He adjusted his ascot for like the billionth time, as if he was nervous, which he wasn't and waited for the young lady. He wanted to leave in an hour, or less. He had things to do today. Something along the lines of buying toys, returning books to the library, picking up dry cleaning. But first stop…Toy City. Those kinds of toys, not the ones you buy for the orphanage, they wouldn't appreciate it. He wanted something new to surprise his little pet…er…Akihito. And boy….was Akihito going to be surprised. So surprised, he was probably going to faint and/or run-away. And no, it wouldn't be a welcome home banner and flowers. It was more along the lines of….well, we'll leave that to the imagination, and the more perverted the imagination, the better the surprise would be. For both parties. (Evil grin).

He heard his date's rather loud footsteps on the tile floor first, before he saw her. She was dressed in a simple tea-length gown, the color of red roses, or more like the color of fresh blood, set off by a pair of heels so high, she looked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. She should be cold, given that she had no jacket, but she seemed to radiate her own heat, as if she had a fire in her belly that was stoked by her own self-assuredness.

He only knew her name, Saito Fuyu, which was an odd, yet beautiful name, for a beautiful, yet odd woman. He bowed as she arrived, because that was what he was supposed to do, and it appeared she had glared at him, but he couldn't be sure. She wasn't young, that much he could tell, but wasn't old either. Whatever old or young meant. When Kirishima gave him the details on his date, he was off in fantasy land with Akihito…this one was set on some uncharted desert isle, where they were castaways due to a disaster that hit their boat (The Minnow) during a three-hour tour…a three-hour tour, so he wasn't listening, as usual.

"Good afternoon, Saito-san. It's nice to finally meet you." He said, as if she was his soul mate, which she wasn't.

"It's good to meet you, Asami-sama." She said, as if she was waiting for him all her life, which she wasn't. Her eyes were the color of chocolate, Hershey's dark chocolate, which melted in your mouth, not in your hands. Oh wait, that was M&Ms.

But it wasn't her eyes that had baffled him; it was the odd number of earrings in her ear. She must have ten (which wasn't an odd number, but let's leave the math to Kirishima) in one ear, almost hidden, as if someone did it on purpose…by her long, flowing black hair. On top of that, she had holes where piercings were removed, on her lip, her eyebrow, her nose. They were faint, as if someone had tried to powder over them, but they were visible anyway.

He smirked and almost laughed. This might be entertaining after all. They fell into a silence that was neither awkward nor uncomfortable, it was just silence. "They left us alone. . .do you think that's proper?" He asked finally breaking the sound barrier, and his grin broadened when she neither blushed nor acted coy in anyway. She looked…irritated, actually, as if she had an itch and couldn't scratch it.

She took out a cigarette, not waiting for his permission, nor seeking his approval and lit up. He inhaled the familiar scent….Dunhills. "Good, then maybe we can relax?" She replied, and there was some kind of finality in her statement, as if she would put her feet up on the table and lean back in her chair, were she not clothed in a dress.

He chuckled and cleared his throat. "Tell me about yourself, and he honest, I can tell when people are lying." He himself was lying, he couldn't always tell, just 99.9% of the time. And yes, he calculated one time when he had nothing better to do.

Her penciled in eyebrow rose slightly. "Close your eyes." She commanded.

He did as she asked, curious as to where this was going. "I love you so much, Asami-sama, I want to have your children." She said, in a tone of a young school girl, who just confessed to her first crush. "You can open them now. So, am I lying?"

"You cheated." He accused, but the corners of his eyes crinkled, as if he found this whole situation comical, which he did.

She chuckled, and it sounded like an old dog choking on a bone. "Shall we end this charade now. . .or later?" She asked, and stared directly at his eyes, seeing as how there was nothing to look at other than the table, Asami and the floor beneath them, as if someone forgot to draw a background.

"Later, I find you intriguing." He replied, and actually meant it, seeing how this woman didn't tremble, flirt or blush when confronted by his intimidating pheromones, at least he thought they were intimidating.

"Find me how you want, but I'm not marrying…at least, not you."

"I'm hurt." Although he wasn't. She may be intriguing, but he still had an aversion to cooties, real or imagined.

She laughed, and it sounded like a dance club's booming beat, loud and rather annoying, if you listened to it too long. "How have you managed to avoid an omiai this long?" She asked, and stubbed out her cigarette on the tablecloth, leaving a hole in the perfectly ironed silk fabric, avoiding the perfectly round ashtray all together, just because perfection was more irritating than a sliver underneath your fingernail.

"Pure luck." He replied, pouring his glass of sparkling water on the slowly burning embers, which threatened to burst into flames. "Let me just take care of that for you." He said.

"What a boy scout." She rolled her eyes. "You're no fun."

"I can be fun, when I want to be." Actually, the only time he thought he was having fun was when Akihito was over him or under him, or when he was punching someone in the nuts for opening their big, fat mouth.

"Then, let's leave and have some fun. You're buying." She said, and poked a finger in his general direction.

"I have another engagement after this, so I have to refuse your kind….invitation?" If he was paying, than shouldn't he be the one to extend an invitation? At any rate, he was going to see Akihito, and he didn't want whatever the hell her name was to tag along, unless she was into watching guys going at it like bunnies, and maybe she was. She seemed like the type.

"I'm not looking to jump you, I have a boyfriend, unless…you get me drunk, and then I have no say in it then." She looked so delighted at that statement, he wondered if she had used the line quite a few times.

"Then why are you attending this omiai?" He asked, intrigued, and because seriously, he'd never met a Japanese girl like her. "Since you're attached."

"The same reason you are . . . family pressure. They don't approve of my boyfriend, seeing as he's a drummer in a band." She lit up another cigarette. "What's your story?"

"I prefer my story to be kept….private." He was actually a gentleman, and didn't kiss and tell. He'd fuck and tell, give a blow job and tell, but if he kissed and tell, well…that was a no-no.

"You're gay, right?" He coughed, no. . .he almost choked on his own saliva. "That is, correct, right, I nailed it?"

He didn't answer. "Give me one of those cigarettes…..please." And it sounded like he was begging, but he thought he'd ask her nicely, since she was kind of ok….for a girl, that is.

"You got it, daddio." And she laughed. "I heard that on an old 1950's American sit-com, I thought it was funny."

"Delightful." He replied. She lit the end of his cigarette with the tip of hers and handed it to him. "Smoke it up, Asami-sama."

"I quit smoking, you know." He said, and took a deep drag, and cleared his throat.

"Hurray for you." She blew smoke out of her nose, and eyed him with delight in her face. "So, are you a playboy or do you have someone special?" He took another deep drag off his cigarette, finishing it all the way to the filter. "Well?"

"I'm not attached, why do you ask?" He replied, and stubbed out his cigarette, in the ashtray. The tablecloth had been punished enough.

"I can also tell when someone's lying, and you, sir…are lying." She replied. "You are thinking about him right now." And of course he was. He was fantasizing that Akihito was a rock star. And he was his manager. And Akihito would do _ANYTHING_ to be famous, including lengthy blow jobs, fucking on the piano and being tied up with his own guitar strings. Now that….was hot.

"What are you, my shrink?" He asked.

"So tell me about him. We can at least do something amusing while we make it appear like were giving this omiai thing….our best effort, neh?" She said, and flipped her hair to the side, revealing a spark of bright red hair underneath her well groomed curls.

"I can think of worse things to do to pass the time than conversing with a beautiful young lady." He said, and gave her the Asami seductive glare, just for fun.

She ignored it. "Don't flirt, I might attack you, and then where would we be."

He laughed. "With you pregnant, and my mother beyond happy? But, I prefer to choose my own path."

"Say it." She demanded.

"Say what?" He asked.

"I'm a gay man." She replied.

"Would that amuse you if I said it?" Asami asked.

"Now we're getting somewhere, what scares you about the G-word?" She asked.

"Most gays that I know….aren't….gay at all, as in happy." He responded. Of course, he didn't know a whole lot of gay men, except for Sudoh, who always seemed upset, Akihito, who denied his sexuality, and Feilong who was beyond description, so his experience was rather limited.

"Thanks for the vocabulary lesson. So if you avoid the word, you can be happy?" She picked up her ice water and sipped it, her tongue peeking out and sucked on a tiny piece of ice before disappearing back into her mouth.

He shrugged. "I didn't say I was happy, however, I'm content."

"What makes you content…you're lover?" She asked.

"If I had one, I still wouldn't discuss it with you." He responded pointblank.

She smirked, and he found the facial tic so endearing he actually smiled. A real smile. "Someone enjoys…shall we say….being enigmatic?"

"All men have secrets, mine . . . I prefer to keep more secret than those who tend to brag about their conquests."

"So you look at your lover as a conquest?" She gave him a glare like he was her annoying little brother. "Do you even love him?"

"I prefer not to use that word."

"Can't use the word g-word, can't use the l-word. Your vocabulary, Asami-sama, is very limited." She said, in an accusing tone, which sounded like she would reach over and slap him.

"I'm a man of few words." He reached in his pocket and took out a toothpick and flicked it into his mouth . . . bacon flavor, which didn't taste as good as the hype. At any rate, it gave him something to do while he was thinking of something to say, something to think about other than her words.

"Asami Ryuichi, the great and powerful, taken down by a few words."

"As they say, the pen is mightier." He said, finding his voice again, which had taken a wrong turn somewhere, and was not willing to pull over and ask directions.

She reached out for his hand, and gripped it gently. He got a glimpse of the tattoo on her wrist…it read _enigma. (__謎__)_"Don't worry so much about convention. The only truth in this world is love."

"Don't go all Hallmark on me." He quipped. "At any rate, this meeting….I'd rather not have everyone know my business…capiche? I heard that in an American movie once, it was about the mafia, I found it funny." He said, and the corners of his mouth rose just slightly, exposing his perfect teeth.

"Of course, I'll instruct my camp to keep their yappers shut." She withdrew her hand and laughed. A ring of smoke circled over her head like a halo. "Shall we meet again. . .give our families something to gossip about?" She pushed back her chair and stood to go.

"Make it a threesome," he replied, "bring your drummer boyfriend." And he winked.

She flashed him the piece sign. "See you later, Asami-sama, give your little conquest my best." She said. "Try not to break his heart." She bowed and left him quickly, off to live her life…on her own terms.

Asami was speechless, for once.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"I think I got gray hair from the ridiculous conversation I just had, Kirishima." Asami said, adjusting the mirror in the limo to inspect his head. "Look, gray hair, right there."

Kirishima attempted to conceal his growing impertinent smile behind a manila folder labeled _top secret. _"I don't see any gray hair, Asami-sama. It's paint." He said, peering at Asami's head, looking for the mysterious gray hair that seemed to have his boss flustered. He pulled out the offending lock and Asami winced. "Look."

"Well, dodged that bullet for now." He chuckled. "I wonder how long that's been in my hair, no wonder she looked at me funny, probably thought I was some ridiculous old man."

"Are you saying she didn't fall for your charms, Asami-sama?" He responded and took off his glasses, polished them with a crisp handkerchief before replacing them.

"Well, it wasn't a wasted afternoon, she was certainly entertaining. That woman's impertinence intrigued me, to say the least." He remarked coolly. He flipped a toothpick in his mouth, trying to get rid of the cigarette flavor still tempting his tongue. He shouldn't have smoked that one, now he wanted more.

"Shall I set up another meeting with your beguiling young lady?" Kirishima said, although he knew the answer already.

"That would be a flat out no. But I doubt mother is going to be satisfied with this ending." He flicked a toothpick in his mouth, forgetting he already had one in his mouth already. "She'll keep pushing me until she crosses over to the next world. And if tell her my reasons for not marrying it would kill her."

"You forget, you get your strength from her." He took of his glasses again and polished them, and put them back on, giving them a shove up his nose with his index finger. "She's a tough lady."

"Don't remind me. I think my father's official cause of death should have been "nagged to death." He quipped, his lips curling into a faint arc before falling back down, as if laughing about the death of his father would make lightning strike him down.

Kirishima adjusted his glasses again. "Then how would you explain all the bullet holes, then?"

"Collateral damage."

"Well…speaking of parents…." He pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes then replaced them. "I'm glad you're already sitting down…"

"Just spill it….I could tell you had something on your mind, your spectacles are polished enough . . . you're going to wear away the glass."

"Well, you know how you thought you were an only child?"

"My father couldn't keep it in his pants… I figured there were some fruits of his infidelity running around."

He took a breath. "The assassin you called Decoration?" He took another breath. "He's your half-brother and also your cousin." He said slowly and quietly.

"You mean, my father and his half-sister…there was a child of that union? No wonder she disappeared. I was told she moved to America and died there."

"Your aunt did die. . .in childbirth. Then he was put up for adoption and ended up on the streets…seems he had a rather mean streak, it rendered him unadoptable." He adjusted his glasses again. "Your father sent him money, on a regular basis."

He rolled his eyes. "What a stand-up guy." He said with sarcasm.

"However, he was the perfect target for the syndicate. He got into trouble with the police and made some pretty nasty friends…and they showed him the ropes. He had a knack for killing."

"Of course, he's the perfect assassin . . . no family ties to worry about, until…he fell in love and suddenly he wanted to choose a safer profession."

"Guess it was too late to hang up his sniper gun…someone wacked him last night, both him and his wife." He handed Asami the file he'd been holding tightly between clenched fists.

Asami's mouth twitched. "And the child?" He scanned the photos of his half-brother, pre-eye patch days. It was the perfect mug shot of a young boy who looked somewhat like a young Asami, his defiance evident in his evil sneer and cold, hard eyes. He flipped through the pages of the material. There, smiling back at him through a surgical mask was Decoration, an eye patch over his bad eye, with his wife and newborn baby wrapped in pink, her tiny fist clutching his father's finger tight. He could tell he was smiling by the crinkles in his eyes. If Asami was an emotional man, he would be crying….for what might had been, for the child now left an orphan. But that would be silly, for he was after all, not that kind of man. "Where's the little girl now?"

"In temporary foster care, she'll be turned over to the state, seeing as how…."

"That child is my blood, however you look at it!" He interrupted with a flicker of anger in his eyes. "Find her, she deserves my protection." He tossed the file back to Kirishima. "Decoration…what is his real name anyway?"

"He called himself Rumpelstiltskin; however, he had many aliases, although his real name is still unknown. I doubt we will ever know."

"_Little does she guess, poor dame. That Rumpelstiltskin is my name._" Asami said, in a sing-song voice.

"I'm sorry?" He was already making calls, trying to find more information on Asami's new relation.

Asami looked contemplatively out the window of the limo. "Nothing, just an old story I remember my father reading to me when I was a child." He responded. "Is Akihito's plane on time?"

"For the most part, we will arrive in time, though, Asami-sama."

He pursed his lips. "I think my life is about to change." He replied. "I just have that feeling."

Akihito staggered off the plane, oblivious to the concerned stare of his co-worker, Motomi. He didn't need help, he was just tired, and that was all. He scratched at his mosquito bites absent mindedly as he grabbed his stuff. He seemed to have more mosquito bites than there were grains of sand on a warm beach. That was a lot of bites.

He had lived to tell the tale of flight 6489, AKA the flight from hell. If there was a hell….this flight would be it. A 48 (yes, more than two day) flight, skimmed the dimensions of hell, crossed into a different time zone of hell, into another season of hell.

So anyway, flight from hell started out well, until someone said _bomb_ right before take-off, and they sat on the runway for three hours in the heat while dogs came to sniff around, taking a liking to the smell of Akihito's crotch for some reason. That reminded him of another dog who also liked his crotch. Anyway, false alarm….turned out the person said something that sounded like _bomb, _like _comb, _which didn't sound anything alike, even though it should.

Then, the closest toilet clogged three hours into the flight, so he had to stumble to the back of the plane to relieve himself, and then that one clogged. He didn't know what everyone was eating to make the toilets clog like that, but keep it away from him.

For entertainment, the in-flight movie was _Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2_ (in Portuguese no less), the movie was free, but peanuts cost $10 (US). He was actually kind of glad he couldn't understand the movie…something about talking, crime-fighting babies seemed disturbing to him.

His other neighbor to the right listened to rap the whole trip through headphones, but he had the volume cranked loud so all Akihito heard was _BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM_ until the kid (who was probably not a kid but just acted like one) finally got off in Los Angeles.

Behind him, this other kid kicked the back of his chair most of the flight, and he was in business class. So either this pint-sized punk was the smallest CEO in the world, or someone screwed up.

And he felt kind of ill the whole trip. Not airsick ill but _couldn't put your finger on it_, ill. Motomi had called it _in a funk._ Actually, he knew what it was….sleep deprivation had finally consumed his soul, had finally made him embrace madness, no, more like melancholy and madness, numb to the outside world, like he was just floating through it on a cloud of anxiety. So when he did finally close his eyes, all he thought about was descending into that darkness. Sleep became the enemy, his chair the battlefield. And when sleep didn't come, no matter how many beers he'd downed (not enough, it seemed) he regretfully opened his eyes again.

Yeah, he knew he was feeling sorry for himself. He knew he was acting the spoiled brat, while Keir and Topkay were dead. And sometimes, when he managed to close his eyes to only be awoken by his nightmares, he thought he had heard Keir's voice telling him it would all be _OK_. That was his go to word. He always said…._OK_. No one else could say _OK_ and mean it like Keir. But it hadn't been _OK_. Only now he realized, the fear he'd been swallowing all along, was that someone would discover that he wasn't the strong, yet tragic hero. The fact of the matter was, he had never been strong.

_Guess you can't lose what you never had to begin with._

But the flight from hell was over, and he could crawl into the nearest bed. If he could just make it, that is. Yeah he was that tired and being that tired made him grouchy. And being grouchy made him grouchier still, so one fed off the other, until he was beyond grouchy and beyond tired. So maybe he just had to…forget about sleep for now and focus on moving forward…as ambulatory as he could.

"Moto-san, I'm going to head to the bathroom, adjust the peg-leg." He said, and motioned to the bathroom sign. "Can you take my bag for me, please?"

"Sure." She nodded. "I'll see to the gear, and meet you at baggage claim." She said. "Don't fall asleep in the toilet."

He chuckled and limped off, hyper-aware of the heat in his cheeks, the rhythmic pounding in his head. He was coming down with a cold, he was sure of it. It would make sense, since he spent many days suspended in trees, a camera in his hand, being pelted by warm, hard rain. Of course, he would get a cold. Maybe he should crawl into a bottle of Nyquil, and then he could get some sleep.

Sitting his plane numbed butt on the hard wooden bench, with the faded logo on the back, he was grateful Japan had some of the best handicapped facilities in the world as he attempted to adjust his leg. It had come loose, making it hard for him to walk. But as he tried to adjust it, his vision blurred, his hands shook and he clenched them to stop the shaking. The headache built and he felt the pain babies return to do their nasty deeds in his head. He grasped the edge of the sink to keep from falling forward. He thought he heard someone yell, and realized it was him, trying to call for help, but nothing came out but a croak. Body…meet floor.

_Nice to meet you floor. Please take care of me._

The cold tile burned like ice against his warm, lobster-tinged skin, like he'd been lying in the hot sun and decided to go take a dip in the Arctic Ocean.

_Fire battles ice . . . ice wins. . ._

….a drop of sweat stung his eyes and kept running, down his face onto the floor and he watched it race into the grout, finding the path of least resistance. One drop lead to another, until it was river of sticky sweat, making a pool that looked inviting to the line of ants playing follow the leader by the back wall.

_Shhhh… little ants don't tell your queen, but I think I'm dying._


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

If Asami was the kind of man who enjoyed people watching at an airport, he'd be having the time of his life. But he wasn't that kind of man. The kind of man he was, to all intense and purposes, was an impatient one. Waiting for your lover/pet to disembark was hell on the groin. So instead all he could do was glare menacingly at his expensive Girard-Perregaux watch, and it wouldn't say a thing, other than an almost imperceptible _tick tick._

He decided two months ago that Akihito wasn't getting away this time. He hadn't tired of the chase, not yet, anyway. No, he was here to give that poor boy what was coming to him, which included a good tongue lashing, a thorough spanking, and then a good hard riding. As a considerate master, it wouldn't do to keep your pet waiting. You would think that he was trying to make up for something, but he wasn't the type of man to have regrets. He planned on leaving this world without regrets and one hell of a beautiful corpse.

New fantasy….just to pass the time, since he hadn't seen Akihito come through those doors and Kirishima was on the phone, dealing with a new wrinkle in his flawless suit that was his life, and he drank the last of his Starbucks and chewed the reminder of his toothpicks. So he didn't have anything better to do other than play Angry Birds on his phone and make up fantasies about his Akihito. And he was his. No one would argue that and live to tell the tale. Not that anyone would have the guts to argue with him anyway, except maybe his mother and Akihito when he was annoyed.

Anyway, new fantasy….Akihito was a flight attendant and he was the picky first-class passenger on a red-eye, and it was a rough flight. So Akihito is stumbling through the main cabin with a glass of red wine when the plane lurches and he falls right into Asami's lap. What's poor Akihito going to do? He's going to get in trouble for spilling wine on Asami's impeccable white dinner jacket (why he's wearing a white dinner jacket on the plane…well just go with it). So Akihito gets all flustered.

_Oh sir, please take off your jacket so I can….treat the stain. _And he blushes when he looks into Asami's lust filled gaze.

_I would, but it seems you won't let go of my incredibly large cock. _And Asami grabs his hand and presses harder against his crotch, feeling the pressure against his groin until Akihito, who had stopped breathing pulls his hand back.

_Sir, I'm just making sure all articles are stowed in a safe manner before we land…and it appears that your items may not fit properly, should I take care of it? With my mouth, perhaps? _No, Akihito wouldn't say that, but it was his fantasy….so he could make Akihito say whatever he wanted.

_You should take responsibility for your mistake, and correct it, you adorable flight attendant. _Then Asami would drag a reluctant Akihito over him and smother him with his hot breath. Perhaps the plane was crashing, and this was their final kiss, their last embrace before they hit that cold, dark ocean. Shit, he shouldn't have been listening to that depressing _Titanic_ soundtrack earlier, it always made him melancholy.

He coughed. Since Kirishima was sitting right next to him, and he was horny as all hell, given that he hadn't gotten any in two months, four days, five hours, and (he checked his watch again), 39 minutes, he thought he'd give this fantasy a PG-13 rating and end it right there (boo). As discreet as Kirishima was about Asami's preferences, a hard-on in front of a straight-as-an-arrow guy (although Asami wondered if Kirishima even had a libido) crossed the line. So this fantasy would have to be continued later. Asami still had the sexual appetite of a teenager, even though he was getting gray hair and wrinkles at least that was his current perception.

And later it would be….as Asami's eyes focused on the NatGeo logo emblazoned on piles of pelican camera cases, toppling precariously on an overfull cart, while being pushed by a slight as a grain of rice young girl. No mistaking, that was Akihito's party. Hopefully, Akihito was bringing up the (cough) rear.

"Natgeo." Kirishima commented. He, of course, noticed it right away. His eyes were sharp as an eagle, to go along with his sharp as a knife wit, which he borrowed from Asami. "Akihito should be here."

Asami stood up. "Shall we make this a surprise?"

Kirishima smirked. He'd gotten rather good at that, seeing as he had the best teacher when it came to facial tics of that nature. "What are you planning?"

"Well, I could hide behind a concrete pillar and then jump out and yell _surprise_." And he meant to do just that. "You know, keep it simple."

"I think showing up at the airport is surprise enough, anything else and I think he'd faint." Akihito probably would, given that the boy had low blood pressure and if someone even touched his cock he went weak in the knees.

"Fu Fu. Stand behind him then, so if he faints, you can catch him." And of course, that sounded like an order, and it probably was.

"You really are a sadist." Only he, Kirishima, could say that, as he had first-hand knowledge. Er…not really, and he never planned to find out. He wasn't frigid . . . he just had an aversion to pain, his…not other people's.

"Thanks, I try. Shall we say hello to his co-worker? See how flustered Akihito gets when I introduce myself to her?" Of course, he wouldn't just come out and say. . ._ I'm Akihito's lover…please take care of me _because Japan wasn't ready for that kind of open-mindedness, and Akihito would probably kill him if he could get close enough. Maybe Akihito could fuck him to death, and he'd die with a smile on his face. Gods he was horny.

"By all means, after you." And now Kirishima was the one bringing up the (cough) rear.

He lazily strolled over to the young lady, who seemed very tired and out of sorts. He didn't blame her as travel was hard on the knees in addition to some other parts, namely the butt. Gods he was horny.

"Good afternoon, I'm….."

She held up a finger at him, while she clicked her phone shut with an audible sigh. "I don't need a skycap, thank you." She said, rather rudely and not meeting his eyes, because if she had, she would be swooning at his feet. Or so he thought, as he was kind of egotistical that way.

"I'm sorry, miss…I'm not…."

"Sorry, I thought you were the skycap." She interrupted. She scratched a mosquito bite on her forehead absentmindedly like a monkey before finally looking at him with half-dead eyes, which were so glazed over, he wondered if she'd been smoking Brazilian lemon weed, a mixture of cacao and pot so you can get high and stay awake. Of course Asami would know all about it.

"No problem, I'm looking for Takaba…."

"You must be his dad!" She yelled, and Asami cringed, more from her loud voice than her words. "I'm waiting for him to come back from the bathroom. He's not answering his phone….it's been…." She looked at her watch, "almost an hour."

He decided to ignore the dad comment. It was easier than telling her the truth, which he wasn't going to do anyway. "An hour?" Something wasn't right, his six-sense (the one reserved for dangerous situations and midnight clandestine rendezvous at docks AKA his "Spidey" sense) was tingling. "Which way?"

She pointed down a non-descript corridor, and returned to her phone, in an attempt to call Akihito again. "Same level, near our arrival gate!" She yelled after him.

He ran, for some reason, he felt like taking a jog through the airport, like he was late for a plane, instead of searching for his lost pet. His tapered coat tails flipped behind him like a cape and if he could summon superpowers right now, he would.

Hoping…right now he was hoping he'd find Akihito standing in the corridor, a smirk on his lips and fire in his eyes, wondering why Asami was running frantically like he had dogs on his heels. Leaning on his cane (which for some reason, Asami found really sexy), and with a cock of his head he'd say…_looking for me?_ And Asami would have to fight the urge to push him against the wall and kiss him until Akihito almost passed out from lack of oxygen. Instead he'd cross his arms and say . . . _don't think you can get away with being gone this long…without paying the price, Ak-i—hi—to. _Asami would drag his name out like that, dominating the relationship once again. Akihito would blush with the color of a sparkling glass of rosé and try to squeeze passed him with a look of defiance, that adorable look reserved only for Asami himself. In the next instance, Asami would push open a janitor's closet, which appeared miraculously just for their convenience, and they'd renew what Asami knew they already had, and yet Akihito continued to deny. Words, at some point, had ceased being necessary.

But he knew he wouldn't meet Akihito in this blank corridor, save for the smiling faces of models hawking needless products to a greedy public. Because his sixth-sense was never wrong. Maybe that's why he stayed alive for so long, maybe that's why, that in his shadowy world which looked gray even when the sun was shining, he would continue to avoid death's grip.

_But Akihito didn't have that gift. The only gift he had was light, a light that refused to be dimmed, no matter how many times he'd been broken._

"Takaba." He yelled near the handicapped bathroom, followed by rhythmic pounding of his fist on the hard steel door. He was vaguely aware of the return of the bile in his throat, the same feeling he had when he first learned of Akihito's accident in Afghanistan.

There was dead silence in answer to his repeated knocks. "Akihito…open this door, or I swear….." He was tempted to shoot the locks with his revolver, but seeing as he had to leave it in the car to get through security, that wasn't an option.

He knocked harder this time, and when there was a pause in his frantic knocks which sounded like bullets ricocheting against metal, it felt like the world had stopped. "Asa…" came a faint cry from the other side of the door, so faint, that if Asami had been breathing, he would have missed it.

If he could, right then, he'd kick in the door and probably break his foot in the process but before he could act on it, a janitor appeared with a key. Kirishima, the world's most perfect bodyguard/secretary anticipated trouble and had called for backup. Give that guy a raise and possibility a vacation, he needed it.

Asami collapsed on the floor and cradling Akihito's sweat plastered head in his hands, Asami watched Akihito's chest rise and fall. He was breathing, just barely. His limp body fought to breathe, only managing to pant shallowly. He had always said that Akihito looked like a puff of air, but now, looking at him, that analogy didn't fit at all. Maybe Akihito looked more like an angel as the glow of the overhead light bathed his body in an ethereal bluish glow. Maybe it was the Angel of Death's radiance that cast a shadow across Akihito's tightly closed eyes. Maybe the Angel of Death was waiting, getting prepared to take Akihito across that river with him.

_But maybe…he would have to get through Asami first._

His lips touched Akihito's forehead softly, and it would have appeared like loving gesture to all others, but in fact Asami was checking Akihito's temperature, and it scalded his lips, like piping hot coffee on a too warm day. Akihito shivered and his eyes twitched with each touch on his damp head.

"Akihito." He said, not caring that his trousers were now soaked in Akihito's pungent sweat. "If you leave me now, I will kill you." He said quietly, so only Akihito would hear his shallow threats. "You hear me?"

"Asami-sama?" Kirishima asked. He was seeing that scary, scary face again, which meant he better do something, fast.

"Call Suoh, bring the car around, now! He's burning up!" Through his morning coat, which he'd forgotten he was wearing, he could feel Akihito's heat from his body through the many layers. He pulled off the coat and threw it over Akihito. Akihito gasped shallowly, his breathing uneven and faltering. What's worse, he was shivering, as if he was dreaming of snow, while sitting in an oven.

Akihito's pale, blue tinged lips quivered slightly, "it's no good," he whispered and reached to clutch at Asami's shirt before falling at his side.

"Hold on, Akihito, you're stronger than this!" He yelled, and there was an intake of breath. Asami's or Akihito's, he wasn't sure.

Asami threw Akihito into his arms, oblivious to the stares of the janitor, the people in the airport. Akihito's head slumped back and a pale ghostly arm drooped down, the skin glistening with moisture. "Give me room." Asami's voice boomed through the crowd, and with that, the people parted, as if Asami were a god and his followers were more than delighted to worship at his feet. If they had flowers, they would be throwing them, if they had words of devotion, they would be saying them. Instead, all they could do was stare gawk-eyed at the image before them.

A young girl raised a cell phone to take a photo of the scene, and Asami glared. "Please," he begged, "no photos. . . for his sake."

She dropped her phone to her side and nodded, as if she were was of his men that always followed an order. A man grasped the girl's shoulder and pulled her back into formation with a bow of an apology that Asami didn't notice because he had already passed them by.

Kirishima pushed his glasses up his nose, and with a phone in his ear, instructed the caller on the other end that Asami would be arriving shortly with a very ill patient, and when asked by the caller what was the nature of the illness, Kirishima said something he'd never said in his entire life.

_I don't know._


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

If Asami was the type of man to sit back and let the doctors do their thing, he'd be sitting in the hospital waiting lounge with the other riff-raff, drinking vending machine coffee and reading _Golf Digest. _But he was not that type of man. Right now, he felt like a big cat trapped in a too small cage as he waited impatiently, only stopping to stare at his watch or glare at the receptionist, as if she could speed up time. All this staring and glaring, combined with the smell of anti-septic and grief, gave him a headache.

But why was he pacing in the waiting room anyway? Did it have to do with the fact he was not a member of Akihito's family? The fact he couldn't make decisions on Akihito's welfare, despite the fact as his owner/master he had rights? He guessed the hospital didn't recognize those rights, and that was probably a good thing, as people kind of frowned on that whole humans owning other humans issue.

He thought of taking out (and not on a date) the stoic guard dog with a well-placed punch. But when he got a look at said guard dog that stood like a statue by the staff only sign, he almost cringed. Almost, but not quite. The guy was bigger than Suoh and ten times as menacing, and as much as a brawl sounded real fun right now (as he had nothing better to do), he decided not to play that card. Not yet anyway.

In other words, until Akihito's parents could be contacted (they were in China on a trip or something), he was in the dark, as usual. That is until he could purchase the hospital and fire everyone or Kirishima could fix this problem with a little wave of his hand. And Kirishima would, he was sure of it. He was so sure that when Kirishima ran off like Superman to do whatever it is that he does, he didn't think of a back-up plan. He didn't need one.

However, as he glared at the receptionist again, he saw his back-up plan standing there, a clipboard in her hand, wearing a white coat like it was made for her, in fact she practically glowed with white healing light. If Asami was the kind of man to leap for joy with this woman's appearance, then he'd be wearing a tutu and leaping…for joy, but he wasn't that type of man. There, in front him stood Saito Fuyu, his omiai partner, as lovely and perplexing as when he last saw her, except now with more bling.

He immediately sidled up to her side, and mustering all the pheromones he could, blasted her with a flirtatious look, forgetting that she was immune to his charms. There was probably an anti-Asami vaccine out there, as he could think of no other reason why she wasn't taken in by his sexy self.

"Fancy meeting you here." He said, and she turned to him, with an all-knowing smile on her face, and a pink tongue peaked out to lick the black loop piercing her lip.

"Isn't that my line?" She responded. "Are you stalking me now?" She was kidding of course.

"I have a favor to ask," He might as well cut to the chase, seeing as his last conversation with her rendered him speechless.

"Let me guess, I'm supposed to pretend to be your girlfriend so your mother will leave you alone." She cocked her head in that fashion that girls do in Japan, which he always found annoying, but when she did it, it looked sort of charming. Don't start picking out wedding china just yet, though. "I'm sure she'd be taken with my visage."

He laughed. "No, but that would be fun." He said, and smirked even though he didn't really feel like it, mainly because he was….worried…..no. . .concerned…no. . .mildly inconvenienced, yes…mildly inconvenienced by Akihito's current medical problem.

"What is it, Asami-sama? I'm a busy woman." She sounded irritated and she probably was, given that she was cracking her knuckles like she was going to beat him to a bloody pulp next.

"I didn't know you were a doctor." He should remind her of her Hippocratic Oath, seeing as how he didn't like to hit girls and he was rather scared of all the thick skull-shaped gothic rings on her fingers. Those would leave a mark.

"You didn't ask." She responded.

"Let's go talk somewhere in private, shall we? Would you like some coffee?" He said, turning up charm, all the way past 10…to 11, which is right after 10. But he left the math to Kirishima, so what did he know?

"You have three minutes, I'm on rounds." And she meant it.

"Then let's walk, while you do your rounds." And he planned to slip off and find his pet's room while she did rounds, whatever rounds meant.

"That would be a flat out…no." Well, there went that plan.

He pulled her to the side, because right then, receptionist girl was leaning forward, trying to spy on their conversation, and he hated spies, as much as he hated assassins. He also hated clowns, but then again, who didn't?

"I have a friend here….a patient, Takaba Akihito. I need to know his status."

"A friend?"

One well-groomed eyebrow raised, Asami's not hers. Her eyebrows look like they were painted on, maybe that's because they were. "Since I'm not family, the doctors won't play nice and share. I'm being kept in the dark. I can't even go into his room."

She nodded, again with that all-knowing smirk on her face, like she knew all about him and what he did with the boy currently under her care. "He's got malaria, and a bacterial infection, from his poor fitting prosthetic." She said candidly. "He's stable, his fever is down, but he's still in a coma."

"Coma? But…stable is good, no?"

"Stable is the best we can do." She responded in that doctor voice, that all doctors seem to have. That doctor voice, which sounded like how he thought Buddha might sound like…wise, with a helping of bitterness for the descent of mankind into the madness of suffering.

"Take me to him." He ordered, forgetting that she wasn't one of his men, and he probably should ask a little nicer. Eh…fuck being nice.

"Why are you trying to make trouble?" She asked, because in her book, Asami equals trouble. So if A=t and T=t and then you solve for t. Then t=AT. In other words, Asami and Takaba together were trouble's dynamic duo. Get those guys some spandex and a time slot because that show would be a hit.

"I don't want to make trouble for you, but he's my…friend." And he wasn't sure if it was he that said it. It sounded so girly and left a bad taste in his mouth, good thing he had some cinnamon toothpicks.

She laughed hysterically, and Asami had the sudden urge to run like hell. "I won't get in trouble. My father is director of this hospital."

"It pays to have friends in high places."

"Or one well-placed relation…come, walk this way." And he practically skipped by the stoic guard dog, who gave him a menacing glare, his fangs dripping with saliva. Actually, none of that happened, especially the skipping part, because tough mob bosses don't skip. (Tough mob bosses have rules too, you know).

She ushered him into a small dark hospital room and bent over Akihito's so slight form which seemed overwhelmed by the machines standing guard around him, and checked his pupils with a blinding flashlight. "This didn't happen and we didn't have this conversation. Capiche?"

"That is rapidly becoming my new favorite word." He knelt by Akihito's bed and quickly pulled a chair next to him. Akihito's pale hand dangled over the bed, kept prisoner by a mass of wires and tubes, looking like an octopus had swallowed him whole. Akihito took a deep breath and lay still again. Now he knew what shit looked like….a chunk of dog poo, left out in the sun and bleached white. That is what Akihito looked like, as he breathed deeply again, his ashen skin trembling with fever.

"Huh…really, my favorite word is cicatrize." For some reason they were whispering, as if they could wake the sleeping lion's cub.

"Meaning…."

"To heal…and form a scar. You, I think, can appreciate that word, can't you?" She scribbled onto her clipboard. "Scars can still hurt though, Asami-sama. Judging by what his co-worker said when I talked to her earlier, Akihito scars run deep, and he's having nightmares." She threw a bottle of pills she drew from her pocket from her whiter than white coat and he caught it with a sharp rattle. "Found those in his pants."

"Only a few left." He read the label, which was mostly in Portuguese carefully. "Ambien?" He opened the bottle.

"From the bags under his eyes, I'd say they weren't that effective, even at that high a dosage."

He opened the bottle and looked at the pills carefully. "That's because it's not Ambien."

"Yeah, I gathered. We have yet to get the results of the toxicology test, but my guess is they took his money and gave him sugar pills."

"Taken for a ride, again." He shook his head. "Is there anything I can do, name it."

"Stay by his side. Talk to him. A familiar voice, someone waiting for him….he might wake up sooner rather than later. That high of a fever, he might have some lingering brain damage."

"Seizures?"

"The C-T scan looked clear…but, there are areas that are dark from his previous brain surgery."

"Dark?"

"Brains take time to heal. Sometimes, when there is scar tissue, it looks dark on the scan, even if there is brain activity there." She looked at her chart again. "Until we get his records from Afghanistan, I can't be sure what damage we are looking at, if any."

He felt the bile in his throat again. "I think medical mumbo jumbo is worse than legal mumbo jumbo."

"I live for medical mumbo jumbo, that and a cold ale on a warm day."

"Well, then, one of these days, I'll treat you to a cold ale." He replied.

"I will collect on that, Asami-sama." She flashed him a peace sign. "If anyone asks, you're his dad."

"Big brother." He argued.

"Fine." She sighed, winked at him and left quickly, leaving him alone with Akihito and Asami's own troubled thoughts.

When the door closed, he looked back at Akihito's sleeping, still form. "So, Akihito, you got in trouble again?" He flicked a toothpick in his mouth. "Why am I not surprised?"

Akihito took a deep breath, as if in response. "Do you know the things I thought about while you were gone? Shall I tell you?"

Akihito's pinky finger twitched.

"I'll take that as a yes. Right now, even though you're sick, I'm thinking about that night, when we….made love, in the limo. You and I, we put the games aside, didn't we, do you remember?"

The heart rate monitor pumped out a roll of paper and then fell silent once more, other than the rhythmic _beep beep._

"I for one will never forget. You gave yourself to me that night. All of you. I had you then, and I thought I would always have you."

Akihito took a deep breath again and his leg moved. "And then I had to let you leave my side, again."

Asami picked up Akihito dangling hand and placed it under the covers. It was cold.

Asami smirked. "So now, I'm really the bastard you think I am, because right now, the things I want to do to you, when you wake up."

Akihito's whole body trembled and then lay still. "Right now, if I had my way, we'd be at my house, going at it like bunnies…I thought of very little else, other than you. You've made me fall, Akihito."

Akihito took a breath and his right arm fell again, the pulse ox meter pulled off his finger and Asami replaced it before a nurse was alerted and interrupted his soliloquy.

"I've fallen. I don't know when it happened, maybe when I realized that sending you away….." and Asami paused a moment and took a breath that mimicked Akihito's. "was a mistake."

Akihito stirred. He thought he saw his eyes quiver and open but he must have been wrong, because Akihito just took a deep breath and stilled again.

"So now, I'm willing to do stupid, foolish things for you. In the end, I haven't dragged you down into hell at all. It was you…..who pulled me up….into the light." He chuckled. "Guess I'm getting poetic, in my old age."

The heart monitor made another useless printout again. "I will give you good dreams while you sleep, Akihito. And when you wake…I will still be here. . . "

". . .that I promise." He said, and he gave Akihito a tender peck on Akihito's dry, pale lips.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

If Kirishima was the type of man to panic, he'd be biting his nails at this latest turn of events. But, like his boss, he wasn't the type to panic. He knew a well-timed threat, a well-placed punch, or a well-received bribe brought results faster than panicking. But none of those things would help Akihito as he fought this latest demon known as malaria. All he could offer was a shoulder to cry on, Starbuck's and toothpicks. And Asami would only take the latter two because he was such manly man that he could star in his own beer commercials.

So as he headed back to Akihito's hospital room with a quad venti skinny macchiato, no whip and a change of clothes for his boss, he wondered when Akihito's current habitat had taken on the look of a war room, with papers piled haphazardly and Asami standing there, looking cool, with a cell phone growing out of his ear like it was a stalk of wheat.

The only thing missing in this war room scene was a world map with those little boats you push around and a WWII uniformed Asami. Instead, he had his sleeves pushed up and he had lost his red tie which was now draped over Akihito's sleeping form. A toothpick dangled out of his mouth and bobbed up and down when he spoke, like one of those cigarettes he used to puff on. Unfortunately, there were no breaks for tough mob bosses, even when keeping the comatose company.

From the look on Akihito's sleeping, peaceful face, at least for the moment, there had been no change. It had been almost twelve hours and Akihito still hadn't opened his eyes. _Come on, _he ordered silently_, wake up so my boss quits making that scary, scary face. It gives him wrinkles._

Asami raised his head and though he'd gotten very little sleep, he still looked as collected as ever. Perhaps it was from all the Starbuck's he drank. He clicked off his phone after telling the other caller that whatever he wanted…he wanted yesterday. "What news?" Asami asked.

"It's confirmed, Asami-sama. I've found your niece." He said triumphantly, because right now, he only wanted to give his boss good news. Never mind about the stocks plummeting half-way across the world in another time zone, which at this point was ringing their closing bell.

There was an audible pause. Audible, because he was certain he heard Asami crack his knuckles, which sound like BB gun pellets hitting a metal sign.

"Is there a guard on her?" He asked, although he didn't need to, because Asami was certain that all "t's" were crossed and all "i's" were dotted as usual.

"Of course there is, Asami-sama, two of your best men." Aside from Suoh, who was the best bodyguard in the universe, his best men were kind of like ninjas, as they liked to dress in black and jump from roof to roof and then disappear in the shadows with a wink and a _you didn't see nothing…_look on their faces.

"Call the family lawyer, Watanabe. I'm trusting that this is indeed my niece. As you know, DNA is thicker than blood…capiche?" Asami's new favorite word popped up again, seeing as how he liked how he sounded so sexy when he said it. He could say _tampons_ (although he never would) and it would still sound erotic given that everything he said, in that smoother than butter and sweeter than honey baritone voice, sounded so damn sensual that even nuns would have their first orgasm.

"Of course, the necessary tests will be done, but it will take time to get the results." He flipped a photo at Asami. "This is her. Her name is Mimi." Staring back at him, with an index finger shoved into her mouth, was a toddler with hair the color of a raven's wings and bright chocolate tinted eyes.

"She's…cute." He said, and the corners of his mouth threatened to rise, and then they did, and then he broke out into a broad smile. Take a picture, and if Akihito was awake, he would. He took a gulp of his Starbuck's coffee sludge. "She has my father's eyes." How she got a hold of them was anyone's guess, but you know how babies are, they liked to grab things and not let go.

Akihito took a deep breath and moaned loudly. It sounded like he said a word, probably the word was _Pocky_, but Asami couldn't be sure. "Akihito?" He asked, hoping the boy would open his eyes and glare at him, because seriously, this stifling, sterile room was rather boring and he could use some excitement right then, even re-runs of the _Mentalist_ would do.

"Akihito's parents will be here soon." Kirishima responded, as if in answer to an unsaid question.

"Delightful."

"Is that sarcasm?" He asked, because Kirishima wasn't sure what would happen when his lover's parents showed up at their son's beside, ready to rattle the cage of his indifferent boss. Or maybe they were one of those hip parents, and would welcome Asami, the tough mob boss with ties to the criminal underworld, into their family with open arms. Probably not.

"I'm certainly not leaping for joy." If he was, he'd be wearing ballet slippers just for the occasion. "I'm also curious….as how this will all play out."

"Like a comedy of errors?"

"I still haven't thrown out that book of quotes, have I?"

"Not yet." Akihito took another breath and moaned, then flicked his wrist, which flipped off his pulse ox meter.

"He keeps doing that." Asami commented and replaced the pulse ox meter onto Akihito's finger, which Asami so wanted to take into his mouth and suck right now, you know….just because he was horny...and hadn't gotten any in a while. He was such a bastard, that he couldn't, nor wouldn't leave the infirm alone. "Live, damn you…live!" He said, with all the drama of a Shakespearean actor. He started chuckling. "I always wanted to say that."

Kirishima chuckled as well, which sounded like raindrops on a tin roof. "Did the monthly reports meet with your satisfaction?"

"Yes…yes, mother hen." He replied, dabbing Akihito's face with a cool cloth. "Except some minor details….you've been looking into the repeated complaints about roofie-laced cocktails at Dracaena? A couple of girls ended up the hospital. I don't abide by that kind of behavior." He didn't mind when he did it, but when other people did it, it bothered him. "Once is an isolated incident. Twice is a coincidence…..there better not be a third time, Kirishima."

"Do you think the staff has something to do with it?"

"Given the morals of some of the staff there, I wouldn't put it past them. I might have to clean house….including Sudoh. In the meantime get me the feed from the night of the March 14th and the night of March 22nd, those were the nights those two girls visited. According to reports, they drank beer, out of bottles, which makes me suspect it was staff."

"Luckily, they were with observant friends, or it could have turned out different."

"I think someone is trying to make me look bad." Plus, you know, getting drugged with roofies kind of sucked, at least for the other person it did.

Akihito coughed, and both men froze. "Akihito?" Asami said, and leaned over Akihito's stirring form. He still looked so wasted, so tired, but his color had improved. He looked a little pinker, like a cooked shrimp.

"Are you guys….going to let me sleep or what? Or are you going to be.." He coughed again, "talking shit all night?"

"You're awake."

"No shit." Looks like someone had a favorite word too, but his was a little more colorful. "What are you doing here, shouldn't you be working? Oh...you are." He said, when he noticed the piles of paperwork currently filling his room. He covered his eyes with one arm, which was still covered with mosquito bites and pink calamine lotion. "It's too fuckin' bright in here." Asami lowered the lights and Akihito pulled his arm off his face. "Thanks."

"I was wondering when you'd wake up." He said, and smirked, because seriously he hadn't smirked in a while and he was having withdrawals. "I should have tried to kiss you awake, Sleeping Beauty."

He cringed. "Sleeping…..beauty?" He had a sudden feeling of deja-vu, which passed quickly.

"I'll get the doctor, Asami-sama." Kirishima said, sensing that if he stayed he'd be witnessing one of those kisses that would transcend time, space and some other dimension that would leave Einstein baffled. One time, he watched Akihito and Asami kiss, just to see why Asami oozed sex (not that he was a pervert or anything), and it looked like Asami was trying to eat Akihito alive, so he kind of didn't want to witness that again.

"Do so." And he waited for his frigid member of his team to leave before turning back to his infirm little mouse. "You're in the hospital. Do you remember?"

"Oh shit. I'm still here? Wait, why are you in Afghanistan?" Evidently, Akihito took a wrong turn at Albuquerque, which is nowhere near Afghanistan and ended up somewhere in another time zone, passing the Twilight Zone entirely.

"No, you're in Japan. You passed out in the airport." He said it like it was the most natural thing in the world and it happened to everyone, every day. "You have malaria."

"That explains everything." And he rolled his eyes. "I have a headache."

"Are you're confused?" He asked, sitting on the creaking bed and rubbing his fingers through Akihito's black and blond hair. When wasn't Akihito confused, actually?

Akihito flinched. "No shit. . .you still haven't answered my question, Asami." Akihito seemed pretty coherent for someone who just woke up from a coma, and maybe it wasn't a coma at all, just a really long nap.

"Which was…" He had already forgotten, because it seems he was thinking about another fantasy involving Akihito and a white coat, and restraints…perhaps?

"Why are you here?" He scratched at the mosquito bites on his arm.

Asami grabbed his hand to keep him from scratching and held it tightly. "Because…you said that if I shaved off my beard, then it was a date. So I'm here to collect on that, see…no beard." And he pointed to his face and grinned predatorily.

He pulled his hand back. "Date? Are you that hard up?" And his eyes lit up with that look that always turned Asami on, that look of defiance and apprehension. Why that was a turn-on, he couldn't explain, maybe because Akihito was one of the few people to stand up to him.

He chuckled. "There is no shortage of bodies to fill my bed." There wasn't, it just they weren't as fun as Akihito's little body. "But you see…I have a jealous little pet." He took Akihito's hand again and bit the end of his middle finger lightly. "And he gets…grumpy when he's annoyed." Akihito flinched and turned his face away.

"I'm not your pet." Akihito looked at Asami with confusion on his face. There was that look of barely contained lust in Asami's eyes, at least that is what it looked like to Akihito, but he was one _hard_ man to read. "You are…scaring me, Asami…I'm still sick…_cough cough…_see?"

"You sound pretty healthy to me but…." He rattled the pill bottle he took out from his shirt pocket. "You've got some explaining to do." He said. "Ambien? You haven't been sleeping? By the way, the pills are fake."

"That explains a lot." He rolled his eyes. "It's my problem, I'll deal with it."

"No…it's not just your problem, Akihito."

"What is this, an intervention? Because I can't sleep? You can't fix this, Asami. You just….can't." His tears just seemed to erupt with no coaxing from him. He turned away, only to be pulled back with a firm hand on his jaw.

Akihito's tears dripped down onto Asami's fingers, and Asami's pink tongue lapped them off his fingers with a soft sucking sound. Akihito took a breath and watched that tongue roll around Asami's own manicured fingers before disappearing into his perfect mouth. "You've kept everyone fooled, haven't you? How long are you going to keep fooling yourself?"

"I don't. . .I….don't want people to worry, I have to be strong."

"Why do you have to be strong? Even the strongest of us rely on others. Do you see me doing what I do all alone? Do you see the people I rely on? You think I'm that strong to do it all alone?"

"You are…." He sighed and shrugged at the same time. "I don't…want…" He went silent again and sighed. He lowered his eyes and examined his wristband.

"What don't you want, Akihito?"

"I don't want you to think I'm weak." He raised his eyes and looked directly into Asami's concerned gaze.

"Weak? I'm still trying to figure out….how much it would take to break you." He wrung out a cloth in the nearby basin and brought to Akihito's lips, and wiped them gently.

"You're a bastard and you should have your head examined." He said and looked at Asami crossly. "And you should just get out. I'm tired." He grabbed the cloth and threw it across the room, where it landed on a pile of papers and immediately dripped down, creating a wet spot.

"Oops." He said, although he didn't mean it.

Asami filled up Akihito's drink and handed it to him, who looked at it like it was poisoned. "Get out? That's harsh, coming someone who said he was in love with me."

"Who said I was?"

"Kirishima." He offered the drink again, and Akihito finally took it.

"Stool pigeon." He turned over towards the white glossy wall. "You're just trying to irritate me…it won't work." But he was shaking again, with barely contained sobs. Bastard Asami could always somehow make him cry.

"Akihito it's time you let it go." Asami pulled his chin towards him and kissed him, because he just couldn't wait any longer. Morning breath, be damned. Coming out of a coma, be damned. Akihito finally relaxed and let the kiss take him somewhere he didn't want to go, into Asami's waiting arms. They didn't care if someone came into the room, didn't care that this act wouldn't go any farther than just….making out, (at least that was what Akihito hoped) because sometimes, making out was actually hotter than the actual act of sex itself. Especially the way Asami kissed, it was more in the way his tongue found space inside Akihito's mouth, and sucked Akihito's breath away, every time, without fail.

If Akihito's face wasn't already red from fever, well, he would be blushing. That beautiful red color that Asami liked that reminded him of the flowers his nanny always put it his room when he was little. A hot pink rose, that smelled like sunshine and fruit.

"Mmm…Asami….Kirishima might come into the room." He said, when Asami had actually stopped sucking on his face to let him breathe, and focused on his neck. Akihito tasted salty, like he'd been crying a river of tears, instead of the little drops that were now stinging his face.

"Don't care." He replied.

"The doctor might come in." He argued and he took a sharp intake of breath when Asami pulled up on his skimpy and so sexy(?) hospital robe, with the holes in the back and pleasured his nipples with his perfect tongue.

"Don't care." He repeated.

"Nnnnnh….my….my parents might come in the room." Asami was moving down, and seriously if he got any lower, he'd find out that he hadn't bathed since Brazil.

"Don't care." And he stuck his tongue into his navel, mimicking the actual act of sex itself with that perfect pink tongue. Although Suoh had taken his usual position at the door, the chances of anyone coming in were slim and none, since they'd have to get by that rock first.

"Ahhhh…Asami…geezz…Is there anything you care about?" He was aware he was trying to push Asami away, but of course, it never worked before, so why would it work now?

"Well…..that's a rather leading question…." He kissed up the line of scars on his chest and caught Akihito's eyes with his and cradled his chin with his thumb, "but I'll leave that for you to figure out."

"Asa…." He was silenced again by another hard kiss, and he forgot to be apprehensive or coy. It just felt…so good. Lips and tongues and teeth melded together to create a delicious feast, that Akihito couldn't get enough of, it was rather addicting.

They were interrupted mid-kiss, by someone pushing in the door, hard. It banged against the wall and broke a framed picture that fell to the floor in chunks of glass with a tinkling sound.

The deer in headlights look on Akihito's face, a rather stoic, but slightly stunned look on Asami's met the shocked faces of Akihito's parents.

"Oops." Asami said.

"Sorry, Asami-sama. His dad kicked me." Suoh said, rubbing his shin and bowing at the same time. He was going to hear about this later.

Asami stifled a laugh. Like father, like son. He waved his hand and Suoh left, to stand guard. The best bodyguard in the universe was no match for the Takaba trouble father and son duo. He must be slipping.

"What exactly were you doing to my son?" Takaba-sama said, looking slightly pink in the face. His mom's jaw dropped and she looked like she was catching flies with that mouth.

"Would you like a detailed description?" He said, and realized that was probably not the best thing to say at the moment. Mouth meet foot.

"Oh shit!" Akihito said, and he hit Asami in the chest, which Asami didn't even feel. "You bastard, I told you they were going to walk in on us!"

"I'm Asami Ryuichi, pleased to meet you." He replied, and got up from the bed and bowed.

"I see." Takaba-sama said, but didn't bow back, and didn't bother to introduce themselves either. He was just too stunned to think of things like social proprieties.

"Mom, dad….I'm glad you're home…" He wiped the tears from his face quickly. "How was China?"

"I would suggest you be quiet for a moment, while I figure out what I'm supposed to say right now." His dad said, in his dad's commanding voice.

"But…" He started to argue, but stopped when his mother gave him…._the look. _ Even Asami cringed, he had a thing about scary, scary mom looks. His mother had those as well. Actually Asami's mom and Akihito's probably would get along real well. Not that he would ever introduce them….if he could help it.

"Son…" His mom said, and came over and sat next to him, and took his hand. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I feel a lot better and I got some sleep." He threw Asami a heated look as if to say, _no thanks to you_.

"Good." She said, and smoothed his hair. "We've kind of known, for a while now, that you were hiding something…but we just didn't think…it was this big."

"I know you're disappointed that I'm…um…gay I guess would be the word."

"No…I'm not saying that I'm disappointed, but just shocked, I guess. But we love you, right?" She looked at the distraught face of her husband, who swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded.

"Of course, son….we love you…but it's just that…..well….no offense, but aren't you…like Yakuza or something?" He said, and scratched the back of his neck. Takaba-sama was like an older, more clueless version of Akihito.

"Shut. up. Dad." Akihito said through gritted teeth. The kind of thing you say to your dad when he's embarrassing you in front of your friends. And he was embarrassing poor Akihito.

"I'm just a businessman." He replied and he heard Akihito stifle a laugh.

"I see, so all that last year, getting arrested, faking your death, all that…was because of your business?" He asked. Maybe he wasn't as clueless as he made himself out to be.

"It would seem so." He replied.

"Do you take me for an idiot?" He asked.

"No, but my business is difficult to explain." Asami replied. "Very difficult." Sometimes he didn't know what the hell was going on.

"So what are you doing here, Asami-san?" He asked.

"Akihito, I brought him in and…well…."

"So, you can leave now," He interrupted, "as we are here to watch over our son."

"No….dad…I….want him here, if he can stay, I want him here." Never mind five minutes ago he was asking the bastard to leave.

"Son, you need to think about this…I don't know what's been going on, but this can't continue."

"If you're trying to force us apart, then…I don't know what to say to you. I know it's a lot to accept, but…."

"I had hoped to introduce myself at another time, but Akihito's illness, well…I didn't want to leave him. I didn't want him to wake up alone." Asami said intensely.

"You care for our son, don't you?" Akihito's mother asked, with a knowing smile.

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't." He replied. Akihito felt his heart stop for a second. Good thing they were in a hospital.

She sighed. "Then, that is all we can ask for. The rest…we will figure out as we go along?" She cocked her head, and gave Asami a smile. She had the same fire in her eyes as her son, the same smile he had. He knew where Akihito got his strength from.

"I think I'm outnumbered." Akihito's dad said with a shrug.

There was an awkward silence, only broken by the noise of the machines in the room. "Umm….you know, I really would like to get some sleep." Akihito said, wearily. "I can't keep my eyes open."

"All right son." Akihito's mom kissed his cheek. "We'll leave." She glared at Asami with that mom look reserved for a naughty child. "You to."

"Me?" He tried to look innocent, tried and failed.

"You and I….were going to have a nice long chat." Why did Asami have the sudden urge to run like hell?

"Bring me back some Pocky." Akihito said, as he closed his eyes. He was hoping for nice dreams, heck, no dreams would be nice too.

"Almond flavor, right?" Asami and Akihito's mom said at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed.

"What the hell just happened?" Akihito's dad said to Kirishima, who had been standing at the door, trying to wrap his head around the scene.

And for the second time in twenty-four hours, Kirishima said, "I don't know." He closed the door quietly, leaving the little patient to his Pocky filled dreams, overflowing with chocolate goodness.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

It would seem Asami was the type of man to lead while others followed humbly behind him, their eyes lowered just in case he turned around and blasted them with his awesomeness. Actually, he was that type of man, at least in his mind he was, anyway. However, as Akihito's mother left her son's room and practically disappeared ahead of him, he decided, for once that he'd be the one bringing up the (cough) rear.

She ushered him into a private family room which was plastered with anti-smoking posters. Just looking at a cigarette with the red slash through it reminded him of those good old days. How he missed the scent and the rush of nicotine. He could use one right now, along with a soothing glass of whiskey, no ice. Instead, Akihito's mother brought two vending machine coffees and placed one in front of him.

"Have a seat, please, Asami-san." She said, in an authoritative mom-type voice. Even though they were sitting in white plastic chairs with a matching, albeit stained table, he felt like he was at his trial, sitting in different plastic chairs being grilled (like a cheese sandwich) waiting for the guilty verdict that was sure to come. Being raked over the coals made him hot under the collar.

Akihito's father had gotten left behind (which wasn't surprising) and was probably now wandering around the hospital, wondering where the heck they went. If he wasn't careful, he'd end up in the labor & delivery ward and see things no man should be allowed to see. You know, like blood and stuff.

Akihito's mom eyed Asami with scrutiny, sizing him up. Maybe he passed inspection, but he couldn't be sure, as she was as hard to read as Asami was himself. If he was the type of man to fear women he would, but he wasn't afraid of them, he just….couldn't figure out how a person could pass a baby the size of a watermelon through something the diameter of a straw and live to tell the tale. There was something super-human about it. "You knew we were coming to see Akihito." She said finally, after sizing him up awhile.

"Yes, I did." He replied, and opened up his coffee can and took a big sip, almost choking on it because it tasted like crap in a can.

"You could have left, and we wouldn't be having this conversation." She said.

"I chose not to." Asami replied.

"I'm guessing from that kiss, that you're not "just friends." And although she didn't do the "air quotes," Asami could just imagine her doing so with her short, stubby fingers with chipped pink nail polish and rough dish worn hands, which moved with a gracefulness he hadn't expected.

He could have lied and said they were rehearsing for a play, but she was too smart to fall for that. "We are close," as close as master/pet can be but he elected to leave that part out.

"Close. How come this is the first I've heard of you, except what I've read in the paper, which wasn't much." She asked. "You're a man with secrets, I think."

He cleared his throat, hoping he could skip over this whole conversation, probably not. "I've tried to keep our relationship private." Although he hadn't done a good job so far, he was kind of bad at secrets. The secret keeper at Sion Corp. was Kirishima, who was also the keeper of the books, secret or otherwise.

"For your benefit or for his?" She asked.

"Let's just say it benefits us both." He replied, and he flicked a toothpick in his mouth, which missed his lips and fell down onto his sweat stained shirt.

"Is your family in on this secret?" She asked.

"No, my mother and I rarely speak." He only called her when it was necessary, like on her birthday and…that was pretty much it. He wasn't the best son in the world.

"I don't trust a man who doesn't get along well with his mother."

"You haven't met my mother…but if she was more understanding, like you, I might be inclined to get along with her." The master of guile makes his move.

"You tend to flatter those that might make trouble for you….but I'm an old lady. I don't respond well to flirtatious words and pleasing looks." The master of guile strikes out.

"It's not flattery when it's the truth, and I tend to tell the truth." He actually said that with a straight face.

"When it's convenient for you?"

This was one of those trap questions you read about. If he said _yes, _he's damned. If he said _no _he's damned. How he wished someone would produce a gun and take him hostage right now. He'd happily go. Instead he said, "I find it convenient to get what I want, and I want your son."

"Is that something you should say to the mother of the son you're bullying?" She was as blunt as a baseball bat, and would probably use one if he hurt one hair on Akihito's precious little head.

"Bullying? That's rather high school, isn't it?" He asked, confused as to where this was going.

"I don't see it that way. He's kept your relationship a secret, he was crying when we walked in, and they didn't appear to be tears of joy. Is there something you'd like to share with me?"

He looked at her eyes, how much they looked like Akihito's behind those cheap gold framed glasses currently resting on the tip of her nose as she looked down at him with contempt, even though he was taller. "Our relationship is complicated, however you look at it."

"You can make this uncomplicated, right now, by walking out of here, and never seeing him again. But, it seems, that would make Akihito unhappy, so I won't demand that of you."

"I'm glad you wouldn't ask that of me, as I don't want to cause him anymore grief."

"You know something I don't know?"

He leaned forward and lowered his voice, as if he was keeping the secret to eternal youth. "He's been having trouble sleeping and nightmares, although I'm not a doctor, I'm guessing that it's chronic."

"Legend has that when you can't sleep at night, it's because you're awake in someone else's dream." She said, sounding like a wise mage.

"Interesting thought."

"So, you've been dreaming of my son?" And before he could respond, as he paused to figure out how she asked that question so flippantly, she said "actually forget I asked I don't want to know."

He gulped his shit in a can quickly, hoping it would taste better if he drank it faster. No luck there. She played with the ring on her finger, a small diamond set in a plain band. "So tell me, Asami-san. Are you a thug or an outlaw?"

He almost choked on his coffee. "There's a difference?"

"Surely, Asami-san, you must know what I'm referring to?"

"How would such a gallant lady know of such things?"

"Even gallant ladies have secrets," She took a sip of her coffee, "however I left mine behind when I married."

"In answer to your question, I hold to the old ways."

"I'm glad to hear it, not many do these days. I think we will get along famously, Asami-san." She rose and gave a slight bow. "Akihito's well-being, I put in your hands now."

He rose and bowed stiffly, staying that way until she disappeared out of sight.


	10. Chapter 10

*I'm not all that happy with this chapter, but anyway, moving the story along.

Chapter 10

Sudoh Shuu was not (repeat) WAS NOT the type of man to allow Asami to be stolen away from him by that kid, Akihito. If he was, he'd be enjoying his nice life, drinking vodka martinis and partying, while the rest of the world worked real hard for a living, not that he didn't work hard, he just didn't work as hard as the rest of the world.

As he did his 5th line (not that anyone was counting) of cocaine in the hospital bathroom he pondered what Asami saw in that cheeky little punk. Rumor had it that Asami was holding court in the hospital, watching over the brat, while leaving the running of Sion Corporation to Kirishima. That little horror would have to be stopped, if he had anything to say about it.

Asami needed to wake up and smell the coffee, and if it meant doing something dastardly to get the job done, he was prepared to do it. The cocaine told him too, because cocaine always has something to say and many ways to say it.

He wished he had a handlebar mustache, so he could twirl the ends and grin menacingly. But all he had were vials of morphine and one seriously ugly nurse's outfit stolen from some nurse's locker, although on him he thought it looked radiant. Never mind he could have stolen a male nurse's outfit, it just never occurred to him.

As he powdered his nose (and not with cocaine) and slicked on bright pink lip gloss and donned a black wig, he stepped back and admired his visage. As a girl, he looked stunning, even while overlooking the slightly ripped pantyhose, the lipstick glob on his teeth and the shadow of stubble of his chin. Not to mention the fact he had no boobs…..he had ignored that little detail. Oops.

Clutching the morphine in his pocket, those little vials of death and adjusting his fake I.D. tag, he left the men's bathroom only to be confronted by a tall gentlemen coming in. He should have used the girl's bathroom, but he hadn't planned that far ahead, another small detailed he ignored.

"Wrong bathroom, miss." He said, and his eyes flipped up and down, taking in Sudoh's feminine physic (minus boobs) which didn't seem to temper tall man's horniness whatsoever, judging by that lust filled gaze. Pervert.

"Yes, uh...I'm new here." Sudoh explained, trying to look coy, but only managing to look confused and depressed. "I'm sorry."

"I thought I hadn't seen you around before. I'm sure I would remember you. What is your name?" Tall man asked as he moved forward a little, into Sudoh's personal space. Sudoh turned his head, as the man had seriously evil breath. Someone had been eating shrimp chips.

"I'm Asami Chou." He said, in a high voice that hurt his throat. Never mind he used Asami's name for his I.D. along with a more feminine name. He was entitled to it, since Asami was going to marry him once he removed the brat from the picture. He had practiced writing his name over and over in his little notebook until it looked so perfect that he wanted to hang it on the wall. _Asami Shuu, Asami Shuu, Asami Shuu_…..it almost tripped off his tongue when he said it out loud, _Asami Shuu. _It had a nice ring to it.

"Oh, nice to meet you, I'm Dr. Blah Blah…." Sudoh's mind wandered and he wasn't listening to Dr. Blah Blah. He was dreaming out Asami and him becoming one. A wedding so beautiful that even the Prince of Wales would be jealous, him and that….that…commoner he married. He'd be wearing a white kimono, and Asami would wear a morning coat with a gray ascot, and he'd be so handsome, that even the priest would forget his lines and drool over the man that would be his husband. (Never mind that two men couldn't marry in Japan, but that didn't seem to matter in his coke filled mind at the moment.)

"….and I'm the head of pediatrics." Dr. Blah Blah finished and checked his watch. "Oh…I'm sorry, but I have to cut this conversation short." He took Sudoh's hand and Sudoh had to fight the urge to shudder at his touch. "Welcome to the staff, if you have any questions you know where to find me." He said, and Dr. Blah Blah went off to cure cancer or deliver babies or whatever he did on a daily basis.

Taking a deep cleaning breath after that encounter (because he'd been holding it while Dr. Blah Blah blasted him with his nasty breath), he fought the urge to sneak around like a ninja and just walked casually, like he was supposed to be there. Sudoh found Akihito's room easily, as Suoh the best bodyguard in the universe was standing at the door, looking like a Greek statue, except with more clothing.

_Where was Asami? _He wondered, but knew if he asked it would set off the alarm bells in the Greek statue, who would probably pull a sword out of his pants and say _This is Sparta_ before pushing Sudoh to the ground and gutting him with a sick visceral sound. Yeah, let's not alarm the bodyguard.

"Oh, hello, does Takaba-san have a visitor?" Sudoh asked, in a high voice, trying to sound very girly and succeeding, almost too well. "I need to change his catheter bag." That always worked, no one wanted to hang around for that. Somehow a big bag of urine always turned people's stomachs, unless you were someone that was into that whole _golden shower _thing.

"Yes. He's sleeping, I think. Go on in." Best bodyguard in the universe, you need your eyes checked and maybe glasses. Then you could be twinsies with Kirishima.

"Thank you, I'll be quiet as a mouse." He said, and pushed the door in and was greeted with a very sleepy Akihito, looking like a very sleepy kitten underneath the blankets.

"Sleepy Akihito?" He whispered into Akihito's ear. Akihito stirred a little and groaned.

That surprised groan sounded familiar. He first heard it when Sakagaki touched Akihito in the shower at the gym lewdly and Akihito had protested loudly, his voice echoing through the bathroom. It was the nail in the boy's coffin, to see him struggling and complaining. He already knew that Asami was using the boy as a fuck toy. But when he saw the cute boy struggling helplessly, he knew why Asami was so smitten. He was beautiful in his naivety, in his pure coy self. It wouldn't take long for Asami to lose his heart over such a boy. It was then that the wheels started turning in Sudoh's head.

Asami had to know how much trouble the boy could be…and he had succeeded in his plan, almost. They had parted, and then….Akihito came home, and it all started again. This time, there would be no coming back as there was no coming back from the dead. Then, Sudoh could take his place where he was supposed to be, at Asami's side.

His evil plan in his mind, he fought the urge to panic. He was nervous that another nurse could come in at any moment. It was probably not a good idea to do all that coke before the job, it had made him jumpy. First things first, he adjusted the settings on Akihito's monitor, so no one could hear the alarm. It was easy enough to do. But with shaking hands, he carefully filled the syringe full of morphine and injected it into Akihito's I.V. followed by another syringe full, enough to kill an elephant, he was sure. He watched the I.V. drip death into Akihito's veins, one trickle at a time. It was soothing almost, to think something so innocent, something used to heal, was now being used to kill. He broke out in a grin. The things he would do for Asami's love. "Oh Akihito, I would so enjoy the look on their faces when they discover your lifeless body. I wonder, will Asami cry? I will be sure to comfort him, in your absence."

"Huh?" Akihito said suddenly, his voice barely a whisper. He was vaguely aware of someone in the room, and it was probably Asami coming in to fondle him in his sleep. He wouldn't put it past the bastard. "Asami?"

"No…not Asami. Don't you recognize me? Oh, maybe it's the outfit." His body loomed over Akihito's drowsy and confused face, which lit up unexpectedly in recognition. Recognition and fear.

"Su…doh-san? Why do I feel so weird?" He felt wobbly and woozy like he'd taken some of that nasty cold medicine that didn't work and only gives you medicine head.

"I'm here to make you cry." Sudoh whispered menacingly. "It's easy enough to do."

"Huh?" He said again and managed to open both his eyes, wide. "What…what..did you do?"

"A nice overdose of morphine, sleepy, sleepy baby. Shall I sing you a lullaby…while you die?" He whispered into Akihito's ear, and Akihito shuddered with cold, as he felt his heart rate lower perceptibly.

"Su…" He tried to yell for Suoh, but Sudoh clamped a hand over his mouth.

"None of that. Oh, I so wish to be here when the lights go out of those fierce eyes that Asami loves so much. So much that he ignores everyone else…but that's all over. I will be here. He will drown in my love."

Akihito shook his head, trying to remove the hand over his mouth which tasted of cocaine and makeup. Now he realized why Sudoh was acting…so weird. He bit the hand weakly which only brought a chuckle from Sudoh's pink glossed lips. "Nice try, little Akihito. Oh…you look so sleepy. Just lay your head back and relax. Good boy."

Akihito tried to raise his hand to push Sudoh away, but it fell back to the bed with a thud. His lips felt numb as he tried to yell, but couldn't get his tongue to stop swelling, at least that is what it felt like. Sudoh watched Akihito's eyes flutter as he was rode the wave of drug-induced coma like dreams, his breathing now faint and becoming more and more uneven.

How he wished he could inject himself in his dreams, just to torture him a little more. "Good night, little boy. Have pleasant dreams." He said in his parting words, which to his ears sounded poetic in their finality. If Akihito heard him and appreciated his little elegy, he didn't know.

The monitor starting flashing, but no one came, no one would notice, until it was too late. Akihito stirred, shivering slightly and frustratingly nauseous, like he'd eaten bad sushi. Was he really going to die? Like this? He fought to call out, but only managed a faint whisper. "I'm not going now." He said, and yanked at the I.V. in his arm, feeling the blood and cold liquid liquid run down his arm. And before he passed out completely, he thought he saw Keir, calling to him, reassuring him it would be all right.

_It will all be okay, Akihito. I'm here, I won't let you fall._


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Suoh was the type of bodyguard to never act without thinking, and as he stood at Akihito's door and watched the nurse leave, he was thinking what an odd shaped butt she had for a girl. He'd seen some flat butts in his day (Kirishima had the flattest butt he'd ever seen, not that he'd checked out his ass or anything), but the way she walked was decidedly un-girly like and slightly unstable, as if she was drunk or something. And it got him thinking…..who's that girl?

Shrugging, he went back to his routine of standing and looking menacing, his arms at his back. He loved standing. You would think he's get tired of it, but no, he loved standing as much as he loved taking out the bad guys with a well-aimed shot. He was out of practice too, shooting, not standing, since Asami didn't seem interested in turf takeovers anymore, mainly because there was no turf worth bothering with since the Anti-Yakuza laws took effect.

He looked at his watch. No matter what, about every fifteen minutes or so, he'd peek in at Takaba just to be sure he was safe from aliens, ninjas or ghosts or any other bad guys that might be lurking under Akihito's bed. He didn't become the best bodyguard in the universe by ignoring every possible way that a person might get killed. So what if they were five floors up, so what if aliens might or might not be a hoax. Ghosts, though, he knew were real, he'd seen enough of them in his death filled nightmares. But they were rather ineffective killing machines, seeing as they lacked substance.

He was lost in thought for just an instant, thinking about the different ways a ninja could get into Akihito's room (don't tell Asami he was daydreaming), when a young nurse stopped in front of him. "Hello, I need to change Akihito's catheter bag." She said, and smiled, like that was her favorite thing to do in the world. And it probably was, maybe she was one of those girls with that particular fetish.

"Huh?" He said. "Wasn't it just changed?" And the bells were already going off, in his head that is, something wasn't right.

"No," She said, and her head tilted to the right and her eyebrow rose, "I'm the only nurse in charge of Takaba-san for this shift, per Asami-sama's request." Right then, Suoh's felt his heart stop then speed up in the same instant as the adrenaline hit.

Suoh, who had never panicked in his life, panicked. "Get a doctor, now!" He said and pushed Akihito's door open, his weapon already drawn. What greeted him was the color red, as if someone decided to repaint Akihito's room. The blood red color pierced his eyes and the pungent smell of blood and something else….a sweet smell, like vanilla, penetrated his nose.

_Morphine. _

He'd smelled it enough times to know that perfume well. He smelled it the day his grandmother died, smelled it the day he'd taken a bullet for Asami, so many years ago, smelled it the day Asami had fallen victim to Feilong's assault, when he hadn't been there to protect him. Somehow, the smell of that sickly sweet scent, so similar to vanilla in fact, reminded him of death.

Blood was everywhere, coming from Akihito's drooped arm, and Akihito, who looked like he was dying, to put it bluntly, was covered in his own blood. "He pulled out his I.V!" He yelled.

The nurse dropped the tray and knelt by Akihito's still body. "Something is wrong….morphine!" She said, and put pressure on the wound. "His breathing…it's shallow, why didn't his alarm go off?" She leaned over and took a quick pulse. "He's got a pulse, it's faint." Maybe she said it was for his benefit, maybe not.

She pressed a button on Akihito's monitor and it started screaming like a police siren, getting louder and louder, calling for back-up, reinforcements, and the cavalry. "Get back, please." She ordered. Suoh stood, noticing the trail of blood he made with his shoes, the stain of blood on his pants. He stepped back with effort as the blood stuck to his shoes, gluing him to the floor, making a gummy sound as he moved.

And when the cavalry arrived and quickly descended onto Akihito's pale body, which stirred slightly, all he could see were the flash of scrubs and the glint of hands moving quickly. All he could hear over the din of the alarm were orders thrown back and forth. Syringes and vials, tubes and tape changed hands and disappeared into the pot, as if they were concocting a spell and Akihito was the cauldron. The sticky sweet smell faded only just slightly, and Suoh took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the smell of blood instead.

There was a scream, and Akihito thrashed his hands, yelling obscenities at the crowd of well-meaning people hovering over him. Two more people came into the room, and jostled their way into the mixture of green scrubs and white coats. The space became an oven, with so many bodies in this tiny room as a bead of sweat fell into his eyes and stung them. "Asami." Suoh whispered, he needed to call Asami.

The loud piercing machine ceased its beckoning calls and it seemed like silence had descended but it was more that his ears had stopped working. And then he heard it.

"Sudoh," came a cry from the bed, barely heard over the orders of the staff. "It was Sudoh." It was Akihito's pleading, yet somehow strong voice.

"Asami." He said again and stepped back and dialed his phone. He might as well surrender a pinky right now, because he had just made the biggest mistake of his life, as someone had gotten to Akihito…and it was Sudoh.

"What is that noise?" Asami said on the other end when he answered. "What's wrong, Suoh." He said, and his voice lowered, because obviously, his sixth sense was tingling. "Suoh. Take a breath."

He hadn't been aware he'd been holding it. "Sudoh got to Akihito." He breathed suddenly. "But he's alive. Someone was watching over him, because…he's alive."

"Lock down the hospital." He ordered and then the phone went dead.

Maybe Asami threw the phone into little pieces, or maybe he hung up, he wasn't sure. But what was sure was that he was making that scary, scary face. The one he had hoped he never saw again, ever.

Cocking his gun, Suoh bolted from the busy, acrid smelling room, to run after the nurse with the flat butt, the girl who obviously had been no girl. He would find Sudoh and make him pay.

_You have my promise, Akihito. You have my promise._


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

_Someone had gotten to his Akihito, his precious pet. And that someone….._

He heard Kirishima's sure, rigid steps, rather that saw Kirishima come up to him, as he sat in the waiting room (again), staring unblinking at his cell phone while his other hand was occupied with a now tepid quad venti mocha skinny macchiato, no whip, extra foam.

He had planned, at some point in the last 24 hours, to get some sleep…to sleep (perchance to dream?) while his little pet slept away, catching up on much needed rest. But _nooOOOoooo….._ someone had to make trouble for him and that someone…

"Kirishima….what news?" He asked, and hoped that the next words out of his mouth would be…._we found Sudoh and he fed himself to the fishes in Tokyo Bay, s_o he wouldn't have to deal with getting blood on his….when was the last time he changed clothes as he looked down at his sweat stained dress shirt, and wrinkled grey pants?

"We've locked down the hospital and confiscated the security footage. Sudoh has a fetish for dressing up in ladies clothing, either that, or he likes cosplay." He said, and gave up pushing his glasses up his nose, as it didn't seem to make any difference. "He was last seen leaving the hospital and heading south." South meant the docks which made Asami hopeful Sudoh was going for a long walk off a short pier, as the Americans say.

He would have smirked but he was too irritated right then. "The staff….have they talked to the police?" He asked. And he hoped the answer was _no_ because if The Fuzz got involved, that would make it much harder to do what he had to do. Fingers would be pointed if something happened to a certain someone…and they would point right at him. He hated when people pointed fingers, it was so rude.

"Not yet, I've stalled the staff, saying it was an internal matter and we would resolve it….internally." He said, and his glasses almost fell off his nose. His face was either shrinking or his glasses were getting bigger. "The director seemed to like that idea, since you bought him a new yacht."

One eyebrow rose. "Did I? Well, happy sailing." He said, and finished his coffee, crushing the cup in his hand like someone's head he wanted to… "I'd ask why Sudoh did it, but I already know the answer to that question."

"Two reasons, you and coke….and not the soda kind."

"No wonder there has been discrepancies in the shipments, he's been climbing that sugar mountain." He said, and Asami's eyes…those eyes that usually looked so fierce, so cool, instead looked so weary, that Kirishima wondered when Asami last slept? When was the last time he slept? They were both human, after all, or were they, sometimes he wondered.

"He's also responsible for the roofie incidents at the club…he wanted your attention so badly, Asami-sama, that he was willing to kill to get it." He sat down finally next to Asami, the plastic chair felt cold and unwelcoming under him, yet strangely comforting at the same time.

He exhaled loudly. You could call it a sigh maybe but it wasn't, as he was just too pissed off to sigh. "_Oh beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on_." He rubbed his eyes, willing the headache that was building to go away. "Do you know, Kirishima, how _Othello_ ends?" He asked.

"No, I don't recall Asami-sama." He responded.

"He dies." He said emphatically, and one eyebrow rose slightly as if to say…._you get my meaning, Kirishima?_

And Kirishima's eyebrows, behind those ill-fitting spectacles also rose as if in response…._he's as good as dead, Asami-sama. _They sure were good at talking with their eyebrows.

He heard another pair of footsteps approach him and stop, waiting for him to acknowledge him as if he was the king of the hospital and he was holding court, in an ugly, sterile waiting room. If so, he really needed a court jester to liven up the place right now. Unfortunately, his court jester, AKA Akihito was a little laid up at the moment.

"How's Akihito?" He said, because he recognized those blue gauze medical booties over shiny black clogs as the ones belonging to Saito Fuyu, the doctor with more piercings than a dart board.

"Pleeeese take your boy home, he's making trouble for my staff." She whined, as she kneeled down so she was looking into his eyes, as he refused to raise his head. Instead, he was eyeing his cell phone, as if his blank stare could make it ring. "He's a fighter…he has the strength of a wildcat. I think he's used up another of his nine lives though, ya know?"

He chuckled half-heartedly. Oh yeah, he was a wildcat all right. "Yeah, he's a piece of work." He said, and chuckled again, mostly under his breath. "His family is with him?"

She nodded. "Trying to get him to eat hospital food. He needs to go home, sooner rather than later." She said, and she winked. "And so do you, Asami-sama." She said kindly. "I'll write the orders, he will need rest and quiet," she looked up from her notes, "I'm looking in your direction, Asami-sama." She said in a funny sing-song voice. "Rest and quiet."

She stood up and he met her eyes, deep black pools enclosed by shiny black eyeliner and thick mascara. She was probably breaking every rule in the doctor book, with all her piercings and tattoos but it just made her all the more….endearing, except for that all-knowing six-sense thing she had going. That was infuriating.

"Thank you for your…help." He said finally, and went back to staring at his cell phone, which was as silent as a grave. "He'll get all the rest and quiet he needs." He promised.

_**FALLEN**_

It didn't take Sudoh long to lose himself in the sea of similar looking buildings as he wandered in whatever district he was, not sure where to go. He hadn't planned that far ahead. He couldn't go home but he certainly couldn't stay here, wherever here was. He couldn't go to the club. He couldn't go to a friend's house, as he didn't really have any he could trust. Mostly, he just wandered, his feet weary, his makeup running, his eyes cloudy with coke and resentment.

"Asami." He muttered under his breath, bringing stares from the decidedly uncolorful people passing him by with questioning glances. Obviously, he wasn't looking his best.

"Asami." He said again, a little louder, as if his name was a magic spell. "I want…" And he looked up when he heard the siren coming towards him. He had walked in a circle (really a square), and now was near the hospital again.

It reminded him of that _Blind Faith_ song, of which he could only remember one line clearly.

"_And I'm wasted…and I….can't find my way home."_

That was the first song he learned, the only song actually, on the guitar his father had bought for him, so long ago. He had just turned 12. His father was a musician, an accomplished guitarist in his own right. He toured the world, bedded many women (and maybe men, he never was sure), had many children, it seemed. But somehow, Sudoh become the favorite son, his beauty rivaled that of his father's with his blond hair and odd-colored eyes. Not quite brown, not quite blue, not quite a color you could put a name to.

His father had come to his room, the night of his birthday. Touched him lewdly, fondled him and continued to do so, repeatedly, anytime he came to Japan, which was often. He taught him that song as he sat in his lap, his father's hard-on pressing him in his back as he fumbled with the chords, faltering over the English words.

_I'll come for you tonight. _He would whisper in his ear. _Be ready for me._ _Don't tell anyone, my beautiful Shuu, or I will hurt your mother. _He had warned him, his hot breath stumbling over the Japanese words, his accent thick, but Sudoh didn't have to understand to hear the threat in his voice. Somehow, he had stopped short of raping him, but it didn't mean it wasn't any less…..demeaning and painful.

His mother knew. Of course she knew how could she not, with his protests echoing through the thin walls of her apartment? His mother knew all about it, but didn't say anything, didn't come to his aid or comfort him with soothing words. He never found out if she regretted it, as one night when he was 16, she didn't come home. They found her the next day in a field, her wrist cut, her blood pooled around her. And he had left home, and never came back.

He squinted, those odd-colored eyes of his, the eyes partially inherited from his pedophile father, partially from his dead mother, as he crossed the street, limping slightly in the ill-fitting nurse's clogs he had stolen earlier. They were too small for his big man-sized feet.

And he walked straight into the arms of Suoh, well, not arms, more like the gun of Suoh, who was pointing it straight at his heart.

"Hello, Sudoh-san. Fancy meeting you here." He said with malice because he was mad, of course. It was crowded and everyone was standing toe to heel as they waited to cross. No one noticed the gun, the huge, pissed-off bodyguard, or the pretty boy in the nurse's outfit, because they had their heads buried in their Smartphones, texting like the zombies that they were.

"Suoh-sama, how is everything?" He said, and sniffed, feeling something warm running down his upper lip. He hoped it wasn't blood, but knowing it probably was, as if dying from a bloody nose was top on his list of worries right then.

"You're wearing an odd outfit. Are you attending a convention?" He asked, and the gun poked harder into Suoh's ribs and Suoh grunted and stumbled, guess he didn't like being poked in the ribs. He liked getting poked other places, just not right there, especially with a gun.

He had forgotten he was wearing the nurse's outfit. "You're hard-on is poking me in the chest. Do you have a fetish you'd like to share?" He asked with malice of his own, but his sounded more maniacal. His words brought whispers and looks their way. He grinned creepily and then mad a dash for it, but only managed a few steps before his shoes tripped him up, and Suoh grabbed for him.

"Don't fall, ummm…miss." He said and kept Sudoh from falling before pushing him towards a bench in a pretty park, just a few blocks from the hospital. It was pretty here, Sudoh decided, except for the yellow caution tape and the gaping hole in the middle of the park, where construction workers did their manual labor thing. Something he had no clue about, and didn't want to know. He really hated dirt, especially under his well-manicured nails, which he checked and discovered they were covered in his blood.

"Please inform Asami-sama that I've got a little present for him and bring the car around, we are at the north side of Akatsuki Park." He said into his phone, as he glared at Sudoh daring him to move. "You're bleeding."

"Occupational hazard." He said, and he sat very still, aware of Suoh's closeness, the smell of sweat, the metallic tinge of blood in his mouth.

Suoh handed him his handkerchief. "Clean it up." He ordered, the gun still in his ribs. Like eyebrows, guns talked to, and his said, _you move and you will know the meaning of pain._

"How did you figure out it was me that snuffed out Takaba?" He asked, wiping the blood from his nose, the makeup from his eyes. If he was to die, maybe he should try to look a little less girly.

"You underestimate Takaba-san, Sudoh. He's not dead." He replied, and almost felt sorry…ok, no he didn't feel sorry, but Sudoh looked so pitiful is his smeared make-up and ripped pantyhose, really a waste of, no not of a bullet, just a waste.

"But I will be, huh? Asami's…what do they say, going to take me for a ride?" He asked, and he laughed bitterly, choking on his own snot-filled blood as tears fell down his cheeks, smearing the rest of his make-up even more. He looked like a pitiful clown.

"What he plans to do with you," He said, and his eyes glinted with contained anger, "is up to him."

He tried to get up, but Suoh pushed him back down. "Don't try that again."

"You won't shoot me in public like this." He challenged.

"Don't anger me Sudoh-san. Asami's been indulgent with you, as for me….I won't be." He replied, pushing the gun harder into his ribs.

A shiny black limo pulled in front of them and they rose together. Sudoh's heart was flipping in fear, knowing what lay on the other side of that glass. He lowered his eyes and regarded the weeds growing between the cracks in the pavement. How he felt like a weed now, an unwanted flower that choked the beauty and the life out of the plants around it.

The door open, and he raised his head. Asami was glaring at him. "Sudoh, get in." He ordered. But instead of obeying, he bolted.

"Dammit." Suoh said, and raised his gun to shoot.

"No, don't. Too many people." He ordered, and watched Suoh disappear after Sudoh, who was running blindly, pushing pedestrians, children and old ladies out of the way.

"Stop, Sudoh." Suoh warned. He had almost caught up to him, when Sudoh careened into the yellow-caution construction area and jumped, into the gaping hole. He saw Suoh try to grab for him at the last second, but he had made his choice the moment he injected that morphine into Akihito. The wrong choice, it seems.

He caught Suoh's eyes, just for an instant, how panicked they looked, how frustrated or maybe, he looked….sorry. Sorry that he hadn't had a chance to snuff out his life? Or sorry that it had all ended this way?

There was silence. He didn't know falling like this you would hear such glorious silence, as the darkness and chill air of the pit shrouded him, almost lovingly. When he hit bottom and the pain radiated through his body, he didn't scream, he didn't cry out, as there was no time for final words.

He only felt, as the power of the Angel of Death enveloped him, deep and bitter regret.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

If Akihito was the type of man…actually, he wasn't any type…he just kind of went the way of the wind, a man who went with the flow, so to speak. And right now, the wind was blowing the scent of roses and sakura petals into his face. It was sort of….nice. Asami's new house was….nice. Not his style, certainly not his cup of tea, but nice. No, nice was an understatement. It was gorgeous, ornate and incredibly large, but again, not his cup of tea.

When they had first turned onto the sakura tree lined drive towards Asami's new estate, the trees moved back and forth suddenly, as if welcoming them home, or just flowing in the breeze. Trees are kind of like that. Their pretty pink petals which were getting ready to bloom, spreading their warmth and their promise of spring. He felt Asami's eyes on him, as if waiting for a reaction, and he smiled, as if saying _it's nice. _But he didn't fawn or gawk at it either. If Asami wanted him to say _wow, it's so beautiful and I want to live there forever and ever and you have to fuck me in every room of the house…._he had another thing coming.

Yeah, it just wasn't his cup of tea.

Akihito wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth, actually, maybe it would be silver chopsticks….but anyway….he could have been just as easily if fate hadn't intervened, if his grandfather, the _saiko komon for the syndicate had approved of her marriage to a non-Yakuza, his father. She left her family behind for love. Evidently, they eloped in the night. It wasn't an exciting story, his dad pulled up, she came out with a suitcase and they escaped. No gunshots, no guys in suits running after them, no ninjas, no Godzilla, although that would have been cool. He chuckled slightly at the thought of Godzilla chasing them through the streets, his screeches echoing in the night. _

_His mother gave him the Takaba glare and he looked sheepish and sipped his now cold tea, which tasted like piss. Not his cup of tea, literally._

_So, the cat was out of the bag, to put it bluntly. His mother had casually mentioned, in passing, that she might or might not have spoken about her Yakuza background to Asami, like that was something she shared with anyone who asked. However, she wasn't that woman anymore. He had asked her once, why she gave up everything and she had said _

_We do foolish things for love, Akihito. _

_Those words always stuck with him. So his pregnant mother and his non-Yakuza father left that life behind. She became a teacher, a wife, a mother, an ordinary woman in a country of ordinary, yet determined people._

_And yet she was always far from ordinary and now, Asami knew it to._

_So it was that twist of fate, that brief event that changed her life and then his forever. So instead of being born a rich brat, _he would have to work hard for a decent living and eat instant ramen for dinner. He liked instant ramen. Any food that had a whole museum dedicated to it, couldn't be all bad, right? There were no foie gras museums, no steak tar-tar museums. There are museums to Spam, Coke and Pez….you know, peasant food. He looked it up once, out of curiosity.

Well, anyway, what the hell did he know about fate? Was it the same thing as destiny? Or was it different? Destiny sounded like a destination, while fate was something that might or not control your actions. Or maybe it was all a lie, thought up by well-meaning gurus to explain the universe. It would be easier than explaining the rules of physics, that's for sure. And why was he thinking about the fabric of the universe, when Asami kept giving him the "eye" as in _when ARE your parents going home so I can do things to you…naughty things, even though you're supposed to be resting and taking your pills like a good boy?_

He was lucky Asami wasn't sucking on a toothpick, or else he'd really be in trouble. He examined his I.V. bruises again, just to think of something other than Asami's naughty perverted habits, especially while his parents were around and he sighed, probably for the twentieth time since they sat down and eyed the pair (his mother and Asami) forebodingly.

Asami was laughing. Not just chuckling, but laughing as his mother regaled him with tails of his childhood, his teenage years. He was lucky she didn't have any pictures with her of her adorable Aki-chan, as she would be sharing those too. He thought he'd never heard Asami laugh like that. He rolled his eyes and gave a pleading look to his dad. His dad just shrugged. Obviously he was of no help, as usual.

Really, their clandestine conversation was rather rude, but he certainly wouldn't be telling his mother that. Asami yes, mother no. Somehow an evil crime lord was less dangerous than his mother. Explain that logic, if you will.

So now, as he sat in Asami's garden, sipping tea and inhaling the scent of roses, he saw out of the corner of his eye Asami's gaze flip from his mother to him again, and he closed his eyes with annoyance.

"Tired?" Asami asked, when Akihito finally opened his eyes and wondered how long Asami had been staring at him with….that intense gaze, which masked what he was really thinking…which meant multiple choice time. Asami was either…a) horny or b) horny or c) horny or d) all of the above. Actually in all the times he'd been with Asami, when wasn't he horny? He tried to think. Nope, always horny.

Akihito shrugged and smiled slightly, and Asami went back to buttering up his mother, laughing at his expense. The bastard, the both of them, the bastard and the…..he couldn't think of anything to call his mother, not that he should be calling his mother names anyway.

All of this thinking about Asami being horny suddenly made him grow red in the cheeks. He turned to his dad, who was busy fuming at all the attention his wife was getting from this beautiful man. Never mind beautiful man was gay (or whatever he called his preferences) and his son's lover, but he was still fuming anyway, his arms crossed and his lips pursed. "Dad, I'm getting tired." He said, and rubbed his eyes and stretched for good measure. That whole almost getting murdered by Sudoh took a lot out of a person. What happened to that guy, anyway?

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid we will have to cut this visit short. The doctor gave me strict instructions to make Akihito rest." Asami said in that smooth baritone commanding voice, and rose and then bowed slightly, holding his hand out to help Takaba-san up. "You're welcome anytime. I know I would like to hear more about Takaba's adventures when he was young."

"MoOOOOooom, nooooo!" He seethed and plopped his hand over his eyes. "No more!"

"He wanted to hear all about you, Aki-chan." She said, and grinned. "You were so cute when you were little."

"Yeah, what happened?" His father finally said something. Akihito groaned.

"I'll see you out." He said, and rose and grabbed his crutches making a beeline for the front while glaring at Asami at the same time. Asami was busy flicking a petal off his suit and looking amused and innocent. Damn bastard.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Asami-san, I hope Akihito isn't too much trouble." And she gave Akihito the mom look as if saying _you better behave for the nice man _and then kissed him on the cheek and his father gave him a little funny wave. "Bye son, get some rest. Let's talk soon."

"Kirishima, make sure they get home safely. And take some time off yourself. Get some new glasses while you're at it. Those…..seem to have a mind of their own.*" He said, and bowed again, watching the limo disappear out of sight.

Akihito closed his eyes again, and wobbled on his feet. He hesitated to move from that spot. He hadn't been alone with Asami, not really, since the time in the limo, so long ago. Not that they were alone, he was sure there were ninjas running around the property somewhere. But he couldn't see them, they were ninjas, after all.

"Umm….." He began. "I could use a drink." He said suddenly, breaking the tension between them, sexual tension that is, even though Asami looked like he could take a long Rip-Van-Winkle like nap. He probably looked the same.

"Akihito…." He began. "Sudoh…."

He took a breath. "Is he…taken care of?" He asked carefully. "Do I need to watch my back?"

"He had demons he couldn't shake, and in the end, they took his life." He said. "I'm sorry that happened to you." Yeah, he was real sorry, because now he had to get a new manager for Dracaena, which meant working.

He leaned on his crutches, wishing he could get at his gear so he could sport cool-leg again. "I don't plan on letting it bother me." He said. "I certainly won't be crying over his ashes."

Asami took one step towards him, their chests a hair's breadth between them. "That's good, because you don't need to." He said, and ran one finger through his black and blond hair. Their eyes locked, the wind picked up and Akihito caught that scent again.

"The house is nice." Akihito said. "What I've seen of it, anyway."

"Would you like to see the rest of the house?" Asami asked, tracing Akihito's jaw with his thumb, ever so slowly. "Or would you…..like to get the grand tour of the bedroom instead?" He whispered, in that teasing tone that meant Akihito probably didn't have any choice in the matter. He could say he wanted to see the structural drawings of said building, and they would still end up in the bedroom, or the bathroom, or the kitchen, or maybe two steps inside before going at it.

And the thought of Asami taking him, his touch lighting a fire on his skin, made Akihito hot. But still, he balked. He was really tired. "I'm supposed to rest, doctor's orders." But from the look in Asami's eyes, that was not on the agenda. Akihito fumed. "Rest, Asami, when was the last time you slept?"

"You won't tattle will you?" He asked, and before Akihito answered, Asami's hand was clinging to his hair and pulling Akihito's lips to his. Akihito's precarious hold on his crutches vanished and they dropped to the ground as his lips were crushed by Asami's forceful, yet gentle at the same time, kiss. Asami held him there, holding him so he wouldn't fall, his strong arms wrapped around him in some kind of odd bear hug. He wobbled.

Akihito broke the kiss somewhat reluctantly. "Asami, I'm going to fall!"

"No you won't." He replied somewhat breathlessly, "I won't let you fall."

Akihito studied Asami's serious face for a moment before leaning into his chest, catching Asami's smell of his cologne, the faint scent of cinnamon on his breath.

"Asami." He breathed finally into Asami's chest after a few minutes had gone by. "So, uh…the tour of the, uh…..your uh….bedroom?" He mumbled into Asami's chest. He could feel the heat rising in his cheeks. Had he actually asked to..to…whatever Asami was going to do? Certainly not sleep.

"Our bedroom." He corrected and kissed him again.

*Thanks to **princessoftor** for the "glasses that have a mind of their own" line. Yeah, Kirishima's getting new glasses! It's about time!


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Akihito clung, making a mess of Asami's jacket, which was crumpled in his fist. Asami didn't stop him. He had a lot of suits, probably a hundred like the one he was wearing, but there was only one Akihito in the world and it seemed like Asami was past caring about trivial things, like suits and food and air, as that need, that desire washed over him.

Akihito's lips were soft and warm, but his tongue was hard, keeping pace with Asami's probing tongue as they continued entwined, in the driveway, Asami's fingers molesting Akihito's faded denim covered butt while he kept him from falling. Akihito was lighter than Asami remembered.

Akihito pulled his head back shakily, re-adjusted his balance, and held Asami's feral-like gaze. Without permission, as was usual because when did Asami ask permission for anything, Akihito was upside down, slung over Asami's shoulder. This position made Akihito's cock rub painfully on Asami's chest, his ass clutched by Asami's hand, which grasped it firmly, then squeezed it. It also gave him a great view of the back of Asami's jacket.

"Aaaa….Asami! My crutches!" He yelled, mostly to cover the fact he wanted to moan under his touch.

"I'll get those blasted things later." He replied as they went through the grandiose oversized pretentious front door (sounds like another description of Asami).

"Asami! You bastard!" He yelled loudly, his voice bouncing off the cherry red walls and granite stone floor. He hadn't called him that in a while, so he supposed Asami was due for a reminder.

"I'm just helping you to bed." He countered. "And judging by that thing poking me in the chest, you need some nursing, don't you, my adorable Akihito?" He flirted with his captive prize, if you could call it flirting; it was more like bullying….with flair.

"That….that's a reflex…..let me down!" He said. "This isn't fair. I could have walked….er…I could have limped inside you know!"

He chuckled. "Yell louder, the neighbors didn't hear you the first time."

"You don't have any neighbors!"

"Then you can yell as loud as you want, there's no one to hear your cries when I take you. What was it you wanted me to do? _Harder? Deeper? Make a mess of me? Ravish me? _Why does that sound vaguely familiar?" He said and he chuckled as he gave Akihito a hard spank on his ass. "That's for going to Brazil and not bringing back any souvenirs."

"Ouch! Souvenirs . . . what the…Asami…you perverted crazy bastard!"

"Perverted and crazy? Now that's a new one." He said, and laid Akihito somewhat gently on the black leather couch in what Akihito guessed was the living room. "Oh, well then, I think I'll take my perverted crazy self into the kitchen and make some tea and read the paper." There was a glint of humor in Asami's eyes, mainly because he so loved teasing Akihito, maybe even more than he liked doing the nasty with Akihito. Mmm…maybe not.

"What…..what are you doing?" Akihito asked, fidgeting a bit because his hard-on was constricting in his tight jeans. Either he needed bigger jeans or a smaller hard-on.

Asami smirked. He actually had a hard time holding back the grin at that distressed look on Akihito's face. "You want something? Join me in the kitchen, then, I'll make you some soup." He took off his jacket, vest and shoulder holster slowly, hanging it on the back of the chair and rolled up his sleeves. His paisley blue tie he left on, he might need it later.

"You know I can't walk over there, I need my crutches." And he shifted again, trying to find a good spot on the couch where it didn't rub his crotch. "Bastard." He added under his breath.

Asami watched Akihito's blush grow as he stirred his tea and brought the spoon to his lips. He flicked the tip of his tongue up and down the spoon before sticking the entire thing in his mouth and rolling it around, as if it were candy. He had noticed Akihito's fascination with his lips that day in the limo when he was sucking nonchalantly on a toothpick. He gave the _Asami Super Duper seductive_ _glare_, which he hadn't used in a while and held back a chuckle when that tent in Akihito's pants got bigger. Asami's eyebrow went up when Akihito licked his lips and clenched and unclenched his fists. The blush grew until it disappeared under his shirt.

"Asami." He said through clenched teeth, "you need to take responsibility for this." And he pointed to the tent in his pants. "ummmmm…..please?." He said hopefully.

"Since you asked so politely, all right." He said, and promptly stood in front of Akihito, who reached up and pulled at his tie, yanking Asami down over him. He knew that tie would come in handy. "So hard from just kissing? You must have missed me."

Asami enjoyed a fleeting glare from Akihito's huge eyes before he tilted his head and leaned slowly over Akihito, closing his eyes before meeting Akihito's soft lips. Akihito's mouth opened immediately to let that warm, hard tongue in, swirling it around a little, enjoying the flavor of Asami's tea infused mouth. Asami pushed harder into that mouth, not touching anywhere else, just connected by only silk ties and warm lips.

Akihito's eager thighs spread and Asami's legs fit into that space. Akihito pulled harder at the tie, as if trying to fit more of Asami's tongue into his mouth as Asami's hands braced on either side of his boy, trapping him. Akihito's low moans started to reach Asami's keen ears.

He brushed Akihito's lips with his, just lightly. "I see hunger in your eyes, Akihito." He whispered his voice so arousing and deep that Akihito shivered. He licked Akihito's lips again and they opened and he slid his hot tongue in, millimeter by millimeter, slowly, gently, as if Akihito was a precious stone and would crack with too much force. He couldn't get enough of how delicious it tasted.

Asami felt hesitant hands on his tie, loosening it. Cool air was blowing in from all directions as Akihito unbuttoned his shirt slowly, each button unfastening with a barely audible _pop_, and then he pushed it off his shoulders. Akihito's hands finally became brave and tentatively, gently, ran his fingers lightly over Asami's bare chest, tracing the star shaped scar on his shoulder.

Asami's breath hitched his breathing ragged and short. "Akihito." He breathed, "touch me." His eyes fluttered closed again and he returned to kissing that pert and eager mouth. Akihito moaned into Asami's mouth, and it reverberated into Asami's chest, as if he had swallowed the moan so no one would hear it. It was for his ears alone, no one else's.

Where Akihito touched felt cool on Asami's now dewy skin, tracing the curves of his shoulders, the angles of his taught chest. He seemed engrossed, concentrating on how the furrow of his abs met the waist of his pants before tentatively gliding across to Asami's hardened ass. Akihito cupped it, cautiously at first and then harder. Asami felt sorry he wasn't naked right now, so he could feel those feather light fingers without that millimeter of fabric.

Akihito had never touched him, not like this, preferring to leave the touching to him. For some reason, this time was different.

Asami shuddered at the gentle touch of Akihito's hand, it tickled. And no tough mob bosses weren't ticklish he just didn't like sensations that tickled.

Akihito's words were breathless, throaty and so aroused it was almost painful to hear. "Sorry, is it ok…if I touch you?" He said nervously, his eyes distraught.

"Akihito." He said, his voice equally throaty, "do whatever you want." He took the hand that was currently touching his shoulder and guided it to his painfully hard cock. Akihito looked surprised, as if he didn't realize he could have that effect on him and his blush deepened until it was the color of the roses he had planted in the garden, the exact same shade. When Asami removed his hand over Akihito's, instead of dropping it Akihito left it there, palming his erection through his gray slacks, watching Asami's heated reaction, before fumbling with his belt. He fumbled a little longer than was bearable to Asami, so he helped him along.

Cool air hit his cock as it was freed from the confines of his slacks and gray colored briefs. It twitched and hit him in the stomach before Akihito touched it tentatively, then harder, stroking it admiringly. A bit of pre-cum oozed out of the slit, and Akihito licked it, then pulled at Asami's tie again and shared it with him, biting Asami's lips gently before turning back to his cock. Where he got these new sex skills, Asami wondered. Maybe he took notes while watching Brazilian porn, or maybe Akihito was getting over his inhibitions, but judging by his growing blush, probably not.

Akihito gave Asami's hip a good lick, his tongue ghosting across it, then his hot tongue visited his groin just briefly, then his other hip, and back. It was cold, where his tongue left slick trails and his fingers followed the trail of wetness. His eyes caught Akihito's again and they locked for a moment, before Akihito's tongue licked the very base of his balls and up before he flattened his tongue and skillfully passed his tongue up the underside of his cock, bathing it in his slickness. Asami dug his nails into the sofa a shallow moan escaped his parted lips.

"You're wearing entirely too much clothing." He managed to say. "Remove it….all of it." He demanded. Akihito glanced at him and released the head of his cock from his mouth with a look of annoyance, before pulling off his shirt and tugging at his pants, but only pushing them half-way down.

"All the way." He ordered.

"Umm… it's…." And he gestured to the empty spot where the rest of his leg should be.

Asami gently caressed his hair then snaked around to grip the back of his head and pulled him roughly with a look of annoyance of his own. "I told you before, it doesn't matter." And even though he was whispering, it still sounded almost ominous. "Lose the jeans, and don't mention it again."

Akihito gave him one of his _well, what are you going to do to me if I mention is again glares, _but he did as he was ordered (for once) and undressed quickly, looking at his surroundings, avoiding Asami's lust-filled gaze while he did so.

Akihito said nothing and returned to his cock worship zealously. Burying his face in Asami's crotch as Asami ran his fingers through Akihito's hair, the smell of sweat and cologne and something else, the faint scent of musk was potent and blotted everything else from Asami's mind. There were no thoughts of work, duty, their hopeful future, his checkered past.

Asami watched Akihito close his eyes and circle the tip of his cock with his tongue, concentrating with almost a pained expression when he couldn't fit the whole thing in his mouth. Asami held still as long as he could, but the motions of his mouth were so juicy he started, ever so slowly, to fuck that fervent mouth, those erotic lips. His hips thrusting in and out while he gripped the back of the couch, leaving nail like marks in the black fabric. Like some kind of horny teenager, and even though he was going through a mid-life crisis of some sort, Asami felt like he could cum at any moment if Akihito kept it up.

Akihito had gotten really good at this. Maybe he taught him too well.

He gritted his teeth so hard, that his jaws were starting to hurt. He reluctantly pushed Akihito off of him with a shove that made Akihito fall back onto the leather sofa. The shine of pre-cum on his lips made Asami almost waver, almost wanting to thrust back into that tight, warm and so skilled mouth. But he had other plans for that cute adorable little body.

"Bedroom." He ordered, because he didn't want to mess up that new couch just yet. Maybe later. Before Akihito could answer he was once again carried like a sack of rice on Asami's broad, naked shoulder.

"Comfy?" He said in a teasing tone, as Akihito's cock rubbed against his chest, leaving a glistening trail of pre-cum. He walked naked through the house, like lovers do, and into the elevator. He even had elevator music. As he pushed the _2_ button, caressing Akihito's naked ass with his other hand, they enjoyed the musings of _Untitled _from the band _Gazette_. Since when did Asami start liking visual-kei bands? He would expect free-form jazz or something as equally pretentious, like the _Godfather _soundtrack.

"Elevator?" Akihito managed to ask because he was still rather breathless after that blowjob he gave Asami, especially being upside down now. "What for?"

"I thought it would make getting around easier for you." He replied.

"You….you…did that…for me?" He said in disbelief, feeling the blood rush to his head and away from his cock, which should have helped calm his hard-on but it didn't.

"Well, I could carry you up the stairs bridal style every day, but I thought this would be easier on my back." He said. "Not that I'm getting old or anything." He added hastily.

"Asami." He said, his voice choking with emotion. "I…..I… don't know what to say." Can't say it with flowers or a wedding ring? Say it with an elevator for your gimpy boyfriend.

"Don't say anything, then." He replied, as they reached the 2nd floor.

In this position, Akihito had a great view, now that Asami was naked, of Asami's butt. He gave that cute slightly rounded butt a good squeeze and then he spanked Asami's right butt cheek lightly. It didn't even get red, much to Akihito's frustration.

"You've got to be kidding me." Asami said. "You need lessons on how to spank. Harder." And he spanked Akihito's ass hard, the _slap _sound making an echo in the hallway. "Like that."

"Ouch, Asami, you bastard!"

After a serious of hallways, which Akihito would need a detailed diagram to navigate, they reached _their _bedroom. Before he could say anything like _set me down gently or don't drop me, you bastard, _Asami threw Akihito on the bed. "Ooomphf, that hurt," although it really didn't. This was the softest bed he'd ever been in, like a cloud.

Asami grinned sadistically. "Enough foreplay." Asami said, because now he was so horny he thought he was coming down with blue balls, which he heard was a myth, but sounded like a plausible excuse. He didn't really want to find out.

"Ohhhhh are you at your limit, Asami?" Someone else could tease too, even though he wasn't that good at it. "Do you want to be inside…this?" And he pointed to his ass. He could blame his new found boldness on being drunk, but since he wasn't, it didn't make for a good excuse. He could actually blame it on Brazilian novella TV shows, actually. Those were hot.

"You're adorable when you tease." He said smugly, pulling out the lube from the dresser drawer. "Don't tempt me, you won't like the consequences."

Akihito looked worried for a minute before the look morphed into pure delight. "Or maybe I would." He teased, giving him a smirk of his own, although his was less sadistic and leaned toward being rather goofy.

Akihito scooted on the bed, his cock throbbing, waiting for Asami to take him. As Asami crawled like a panther onto the white fluffy bed, he saw that feral look in Asami's eyes again, the one that always made him shiver. Akihito spread his thighs, in invitation. Maybe he was at his limit too, who knows.

Something in Asami's tightly wound body snapped, as if he was a coil in a well-tuned engine and he pounced suddenly, aware that his actions were definitely frantic as his mouth found Akihito's neck. He grasped his head and eased it so that taught neck with that pulsing vein was open to him. He marked him noisily, sucking right at that pulse point, drawing the skin into his teeth and back out and kissing the spot lightly with his lips then returning to sucking. His hand grasped harder, pulling Akihito's hair and the head followed it, exposing more of that dewy neck for Asami's dining pleasure. And he indeed was pleased.

"Ahhhh" Akihito whimpered the bob in his throat moving as he swallowed a moan. "Hhnh, Asami." He whispered.

He sat back and admired his handiwork. Akihito was going to sport a nice bluish red hicky. He grinned, enjoying the look of that lit up face, that red blush that seemed never to abate. Mimicking Akihito's earlier touches, he traced the faint scar on Akihito's shoulder with his well lubed fingers, followed the ones on his chest, before circling Akihito's pink tinged ass with two fingers.

Not taking his eyes off that lustful face Akihito was making, he plunged those fingers in, waiting for the moan that was sure to follow. Sweet music.

"Aaaaa….it's been…awhile." He moaned, on cue, his eyes fluttering closed, his body wriggling in pleasure and pain.

"Too long. Relax, Akihito." He said, while probing and stretching that hole. He could feel Akihito's tight muscles clench and unclench, sucking him in. His other hand never stopped tweaking those pink nipples. First rubbing them, the pinching them lightly. More Akihito moaning music followed.

Asami wanted to be gentle, actually no he didn't. He loved that blush and that look of ecstasy combined with pain on Akihito's face when he pushed into his tight ass. There was no feeling like it in the world, as Akihito's muscles quivered around his cock, enticing him, begging him to end his lustful torment.

"Asami!" He almost choked on his name as Asami pushed into him, Akihito's legs spreading wider, his hands clutching the metal bedframe, rattling it noisily.

Asami paused just for moment, more to let Akihito relax further, and yet his brow furrowed as he let the sudden urge to thrust pass. His left hand found Akihito's wounded leg and he touched it gently, hearing Akihito's grunt in surprise.

"Sensitive?" He asked, and gave it a little kiss.

"Yeah, the nerve endings….." He started to say but stopped and gritted his teeth when Asami stroked the end of his leg again with the light touch of his fingertips.

"Good to know." He replied, and gave a gentle, tentative thrust, happily surprised when Akihito bore down and met it. Akihito's heart was pounding hard and he was shaking a little. Asami could feel it through his chest.

Akihito slid his hand down to touch where Asami's hard cock entered him. Asami could feel his fingers tracing around Akihito's hole, as Asami's cock flexed inside him, making them both groan with pleasure.

He entwined his fingers into Akihito's and pushed it into the mattress, while giving Akihito a playful nip on his neck. He thrusted, driving his cock deep, as he pounded into Akihito, his hips rocking to that sweet melody of Akihito's grunts and moans.

Akihito gasped and his head flew back, the pre-cum from his cock flipping off the end as he rocked his hips in a circle, meeting Asami's thrusts with his own.

"Asami." He breathed, his eyes clenched so tight, his voice so strangled that he thought for a moment that Akihito had stopped breathing. He looked down to watch his dick slide in an out of that beautiful ass, and suddenly the tingling started along with a flipping in his groin, as Akihito's moans hit a feverish pitch.

He felt Akihito's ass tighten around his cock and he loosened his hold on Akihito's hand and pumped Akihito's swollen, red cock in tandem with his thrusts.

Akihito panted, raising his ass a little higher, his thighs spread a little wider, making Asami take Akihito deeper. His balls were slapping now against Akihito's cute little butt and it made Asami hornier, hearing that slap of skin on skin.

Akihito tightened even further as he stroked him, and the tingling in Asami's thighs built as he neared release so he thrusted harder, and stroked Akihito faster and faster, as they both neared their climaxes.

"Asami!" Akihito yelled loudly and the reverberation of his name on those lips made Asami release suddenly, his toes curled with the intensity of the orgasm, and he came into that twitching hole, stifling a moan.

Akihito keened loudly and his breathing stopped and restarted as the first strand of seed hit Asami's hand then continued to pump profuse amounts of cum until his hand was coated in it like melted white chocolate.

The orgasm was so intense, that he was stirring again just thinking about it as Asami panted, willing the flipping of his heart to calm down. His eyes stayed closed, listening to the beat of his heart, the beat of Akihito's heart. Asami loved the afterglow of sexual release, the pungent smell of sweat, the musk of their coupling. He didn't feel like moving, hoping he could just stay like this until he stirred again, which would be sooner, than later.

He hesitatingly opened his eyes, and was greeted with the droopy satisfied hazel eyes of Akihito, looking at him with concern.

"Asami?"

"Yes?" He mumbled, feeling like sleep might be a good idea, although he still entertained the thought of another round.

He asked in a sleepy voice that sounded like a little child whining. "I need to get some sleep, so…uh…you can pull out now."

"Anything else you want, kitten?" He teased and Akihito's eyes opened wide and glared at him. Asami smirked as he pulled out unwillingly enjoying that fire in Akihito's eyes, and his cum glistening on Akihito's thighs. He wiped his cum covered hand in the handily placed towels by the bed (Kirishima's doing most likely).

"Kitten? Really?" He said sleepily.

"Well, I should have a pet name for you, right? I mean…I could call you Aki-chan, honey or dear, or battle-ax, or baby or something along those lines." He said and grinned when Akihito cringed. "But then again, my pet name for you is my choice, isn't it my dear. adorable. Aki-hi-to." He said, drawing the sentence out, although Akihito's eyes were fluttering and he wondered if his teasing was having any effect at all.

"Oh just kill me now." He said, rubbing his eyes.

"You already call me bastard…which is so endearing, I get goose bumps when I hear it." And he flicked a toothpick in his mouth, as a post-coital thing, replacing the cigarette he would be smoking. Although he really wanted one of those cancer sticks right now. Actually a cigar sounded apropos right at the moment.

"Asami..you…." He yawned, too tired to argue about nicknames or whatever was currently spouting out of crazy Asami's mouth right then. He felt too relaxed. Sticky, but relaxed.

"Bastard." He finished and watched Akihito close his eyes and settle into the covers. Asami covered him up, a satiated look on his face, which meant he was smirking, again.

He watched Akihito breathe deeply and mumble before turning over. He really should be a nice guy and get the boy his crutches and clean him up, but he was enjoying this quiet moment, when Akihito wasn't spouting nonsense out of that mouth.

He sat back in the overstuffed black chair for a moment, his head leaned back, thinking about nothing in particular, listening to Akihito's breathing become deep and even. At first, what he heard sounded like snoring coming from his _kitten._

But then he froze when he heard another man's name on Akihito's lips. Akihito thrashed, moaned slightly, not in ecstasy but in terror. Akihito's face pinched in fear.

_Keir. No. _He had said.

He jerked under the covers and Asami joined him in the bed, caressing Akihito's hair, rubbing his shoulders. "Shhhh." He said soothingly. Akihito stirred slightly, turning towards him and settling against Asami's body. His face relaxed and he sighed slightly, his head settling against Asami's arm.

"Shhhh." Asami said again and closed his eyes. Akihito was wrong about one thing. Asami would fix this, this demon that refused to let Akihito go.

And with that promise in his mind, he joined Akihito in fitful slumber.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

_My skin is flawless, unmarked, a perfect canvas for his eager fingers, but he's not using his fingers to touch me. My abs quiver with excitement as this blue-eyed man, my perfect Keir runs the black muzzle of his gun up and down my perfect, angel like skin. Gunpowder is his paint, and the dark gray marks he's left behind on me make me shiver._

"_We always meet like this, by the river." He whispers in my ear. I shiver again, thinking about how beautiful this man is, how utterly perfect._

_We are without flaws here._

"_Why do we meet by the river?" I ask and look into those deep blue eyes, so like an unrippled pond reflecting the beautiful blue sky, so much like the turquoise stone he carries in his pocket for luck._

"_This is the only place we can meet…in your dreams by my river….my sleeping beauty." He says slowly, his tongue peeking out when he talks. His tongue is black, like the gun he carries, but still perfect, so sinful in its perfection. "You are at your most beautiful, when you sleep, my Akihito."_

_I shiver again, as that deep voice calls to me, I could listen to it all day, listen to it read the phone book in my ear, but we have no phone book here, no wine to get drunk on, and no pencil to draw this scene. Just a cold gun, the hard ground, the blue sky, the flowing river. Here is nothingness, the rumbling river flowing so slow, its water so black, it's like time has stopped._

_Drops of rain fall suddenly, even though the sky is still so blue. The rain destroyed the perfectness of our world. The terrifyingly big drops sting my perfect skin. I run from the rain, trying to escape it, as I call for Keir, who has gone ahead to prepare a shelter. At least, that is where I think I'm running to._

_I run, aware that my legs are perfect, and why wouldn't they be...as my heartbeat speeds up as I run, and now I can see the shelter, a twist of green metal in the otherwise perfect landscape._

_Our shelter. Keir should be there, holding out his hand, waiting for me. But he's not._

"_Kier!" I shout when I can't see him, and the thunder swallows my words, the thunder reverberates, sounding like bombs falling on an already wasted landscape. Sometime while I was running, the landscape lost its perfection. The world turned gray suddenly; the fog descended, smelling not like fog, but like something else. Dust, smoke…_

_...death._

"_Keir!" I yell again, but he doesn't seem to answer, doesn't seem to hear me. I can't hear either. "Am I talking? Can you hear me?" I stop running, there is no more running, I am caught, lost, wounded, in pain._

_Now the rain is all around me and I feel only that sharp pain, I can still hold onto my thoughts through the pain, when suddenly I hear him…those words a perfect memorial for a perfect man._

"_Tell your heart to forget me."_

_And I yell, out of my perfect mouth, into those flawless ears, even though I can't see him. "Keir! I can't! I won't!"_

_I'm blinded by a white flash, another flash….and then there is silence but I know I am still screaming, always, I am screaming._

Asami woke suddenly and on instinct, drew his weapon as an almost inhuman shrieking filled their dark room, followed by the sound of a body falling on the wooden floor. He hit the lamp quickly and moved the weapon still aimed in the direction of the sound. He let his eyes adjust as he felt that familiar icy breath on his neck, and it had nothing to do with the temperature of the room.

_From the pricking of the thumbs….something wicked this way comes._

"Akihito!" He yells even though the screaming drowns out his words. The rattling drone of Akihito's breathing comes in between choked screeches sounding like hail on a tin roof. He strains to distinguish words from the torrent of cries coming from Akihito's mouth.

The room shook as if thunder was rattling the panes of their windows overlooking the Tokyo skyline, but it was only the wind through the trees. It was only the wind, not a demon clawing at his gates, not the god of death waiting for his second or third or…fifth…he's lost count now….chance.

He moves suddenly, quickly, feeling super human as he pulls the body into his arms, cradling Akihito as he shivers. Akihito's pulse, he could see it before he could feel it through his chest, beating wildly, his body soaked in sweat, his voice hoarse from his tortured screams. "Akihito!" Asami yells. "I've got you. I've got you. You're here with me. I've got you."

The trembling hands push and push, his eyes look but aren't seeing, aren't registering. He looks so haunted that Asami almost cries in anguish. Almost, but tough mob bosses don't cry. "Akihito. Stay here with me." He doesn't know what makes him say that but Akihito fights him harder, struggles with almost unearthly power. The wild hands go to scratch at his unseen monster, but he catches those hands and grasps them to his chest. "Take a breath."

Finally, there is acknowledgement in those tortured eyes, as if suddenly, he's aware of the realness of their world. "Asa…." is all he can get out before sobs consume him, making a river of tormented tears running down his face. "Dammit!" He yells, the first coherent thing coming out of those red lips.

"Shhhh…. a nightmare?" Actually he doesn't have to ask, it's obvious. This is the first one he's witnessed. He knows Akihito's plagued with them, but he didn't realize they were this bad, so bad that Akihito fears heighten when night comes.

"Take a breath…..relax." He orders. He's past soothing tones, Akihito can't hear him anyway. He hears Akihito breathe deeply then sob again. "Shhh…." He keeps saying over and over. Repeating it like a mantra that would banish all bad thoughts from Akihito's mind. This is….bad.

Time ticks by, he can hear the clock on the wall counting the seconds for him as if saying _t__o-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow_,with each beat of that minute hand.

But for Akihito, that tomorrow hadn't come. That demon who controls time won't relinquish those chains to the past, to a man Asami was sure…..was more than a co-worker, more than a friend, a lover perhaps? He doesn't know, doesn't want to know.

"Akihito. Breathe," and kisses him, just lightly on the lips, as if was trying breathe life into a stone. Akihito does, faintly.

The trembling stops, the heartbeat quiets, the wild hands drop, the sobs cease. All is left is the ticking clock, saying_ t__o-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow._

And then so low, that Asami strains his ears and holds his breath himself, hearing the faint, tortured whisper of his lover, his kitten. "Asami."

"Are you all right now?" He asks.

"I've seen better days." He mumbles into Asami's naked chest. "I've seen worse."

"It's not your fault." Asami says and lightly kisses those tear stained cheeks, that tortured face. His lips turned salty from the remnant of Akihito's tears.

Akihito takes a large breath, the scars on his chest ripple as he inhales deeply. "I'm afraid!" He admits, and shrugs. "I have gone past madness, Asami! I close my eyes and I see him!" He scoots off Asami's lap and pins himself in the corner, hugging his knees to his chest. His peg-leg, that constant reminder wraps protectively under him.

"You bounced back when Feilong raped you, you survived being shot, you lived through a mine explosion, you endured a deadly strain of malaria and when that skank tried to give you an OD of morphine, you pulled out your own I.V. And a little nightmare drops you flat?" He said, and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He left a quite a few things out. "I won't allow this! I know you're stronger than this!"

"I….." He started to say, and then shrugged. He couldn't argue with logic, even though he failed logic in school (along with chemistry). "I don't think…I can live here…..with you…..Asami." He buried his head into his knee and rocks himself, as if he was a child.

There was that evil chuckle he uses when he's mildly annoyed. And now he's annoyed. "So you think you can solve this by yourself?"

He shrugged, which meant, he had no plan, didn't know what to do and was just winging it, as usual. "I don't know."

"Might I remind you that I'm not the type of man to just let this go?" He said with a look of irritation, his brow furrowed leaving crease marks in his face. "Your mother, she left you in my care, therefore….."

"She did that?" He asked in confusion, finally looking at Asami then looking away quickly. "Please just…..let me leave, Asami. It's better this way, I'll just be in your way."

"If I let you leave, I will have to answer to her." He replied. "You know that don't you?" The master of guile….use someone's mother against them…it usually works. 99.8% of the time. And yes, he calculated once when he had nothing better to do.

Akihito pouted. "What did my mother say to you?"

"That was for my ears alone, Akihito." He rose and sat on the bed, patting the white cloth in invitation. "Sit on the bed, the floor is cold." He said and Akihito scooted over and Asami lifted him and with effort sat him down next to him.

"Just because she's former Yakuza, doesn't mean she does those things." He said, and Asami raised an eyebrow.

"But she still holds to the old ways." He said, and ran a finger through Akihito's hair. Akihito pushed him away, which was no surprise. "I was wondering if you knew."

"Of course I knew I've known ever since I was little. It's not a secret in our family. We usually don't keep secrets in our family…until you came along."

"I'm your _DIRTY_ little secret, huh."

"Do you sit around thinking of perverted things to say?" He asked, and he smiled ever so slightly, just a slight quiver of the corner of his mouth.

"Yes, yes I do." He grabbed a toothpick and flipped it into his mouth, the scent of cinnamon filled the air, reminding Akihito of his mother's New Year's cinnamon kanten. "No more talk of leaving, Akihito. It irritates me."

Akihito looked up, a look of concern on his face. "I'm not surprised, everything I do irritates you."

"It irritates me that you don't believe I can fix this." He added.

"I don't think you can." Akihito replied, shrugging again.

"I haven't even gotten started yet, and you've already given up on me." Asami said, inching closer to Akihito, even though they were sitting thigh to thigh.

"Given up?" He asked and raised his head suddenly aware of Asami's closeness. He blushed adorably. "How can you fix this, by throwing enough money at it?" His pitch was starting to rise as if he was getting angry.

He smirked just ever so slightly at that fire in Akihito's eyes. "I'll make you a bet. If I can find a way to banish your nightmares, and have you sleeping like a baby again….I get to," he repositioned the toothpick in his mouth, "take you sailing."

"Sailing." He said, not sure what he heard coming out of crazy Asami's mouth.

"We never got to play pirate captain and captive slave." He grinned when Akihito's blush deepened. "But if I can't….then….I surrender this….to your mother." He said, and held up his pinky and wiggled it.

"You're sick." He said it disbelief. "You and my mother….you're both sick."

"She will want my pinky if I don't take care of you properly." He said, and then added hastily. "You know, she might even cut off my balls with pinking shears if harm comes to her little Aki-chan."

"She's not like that, she won't want your pinky, or your….your…." He pointed to Asami's crotch.

"Balls." He pulled Akihito back into his lap again and cradled his chin in his hands. "You don't want me to lose a pinky, do you?"

"You're not going to stick me in a cage and shoot drugs in me, are you?" He asked.

"No, no. Trust me."

"Trust you? You must be joking." He looked beyond wary. "You're not going to ravish me until I _hurry up and forget _or whatever you said after Hong Kong._"_

"No, but if you want to start with that, I'd certainly oblige." He said, and one eyebrow rose, as if in invitation. But it fell immediately when Akihito glared. "You know you're tempting me, sitting around buck naked like that."

"What the hell…..bastard!" Akihito said and laughed slightly when Asami grinned. "You're just trying to take my mind off things….aren't you?"

"Yes, is it working?" He said, and his fingertips lightly, teasingly glided over Akihito's shoulder and down his arm. Akihito shivered; goose bumps erupted on his arm.

"Stop it…you." He whispered.

"I need to work on that hickey on your neck some more." He said his voice lowered an octave, just to see Akihito squirm. Akihito's adorably innocent reactions to his voice, his touch, and his heated half-lidded gazes stoked that fire within him. "I don't think I've marked you enough."

"I'm all sticky, and sweaty, and I don't feel good."

"Why don't we do it in the shower, then, I'll make you feel better."

He picked him up, cradling his butt underneath his arms, as they kissed slowly. Not frantic, not heated, just slowly.

The sun rose behind them, through the tint of the windows, casting orange shadows on the now empty room, banishing the demons of the night. And still the clock ticked on, fulfilling its promise of _to-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow._


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

As Asami dialed the number he found buried under piles of yellowing paper, he could almost hear that whiney voice in his head, that high-pitched and high-brow tone his sensei used when he was playing professor, which was all the time. _"One does not have morals, Asami-san, one has dreams. Otherwise, the world would be a very dull place indeed."_

Asami walked two steps, turned and walked two steps again. You could call it pacing the floor, but he was not the type of man who paced. He might strut, stroll, run, and even sprint sometimes, when the situation called for it, but he never, ever paced, unless he was in a hospital, and then it was fine then for some reason.

He took two more steps, turned around the corner of his desk and waited for his call to connect, flipping through a pile of unread reports as he waited.

"Sensei Shimizu, it's nice to speak to you again." Asami said, keeping his voice low as to not wake his sleeping kitten in the other room. After another round of nursing AKA fucking in the bathroom, Akihito finally fell into a deep dreamless sleep. Dreamless is seems, thanks to his expert treatment and the Ambien he put in Akihito's mouth with a well-placed and unnoticed shove of his probing tongue. Akihito would have taken the tiny pill the traditional way, but where's the fun in that?

He waited as the other party took a breath. He hadn't introduced himself, didn't think he needed to. The man on the other end would know his voice. He was sure of it.

_"Asami-san, it's been awhile since we've spoken, how is life these days, since the last I heard, you were dead?"_

Asami smirked to himself, seeing as you can't hear smirking on the phone, and reached for his pack of toothpicks. "Life is….as well as can be expected, and being dead was like going on vacation." He said, and flicked a toothpick in his mouth to get the metallic taste of the Ambien off of his tongue. "I need a favor from you."

_"This astounds me, Asami-san, you're being so direct. Perhaps you're in need of some attention."_

That high voice was starting to already get on his nerves. "I have been attended to, thank you. What I require…"

_Is this requirement as your Sensei? Or as your toy supplier?"_

"Perhaps one will lead to the other, in time."

_"Oooooo…..I'm chomping at the bit then, so I will listen since you decided to open that clamped mouth of yours. I sense much trouble in you, young padawan." _

"The line is _I sense much fear in you_, and you're still a nerd. However, I'm not so much troubled, but needing…..advice." No, he wasn't troubled. He just didn't want to lose a pinky.

_"Specific advice? Or life in general advice…by the way, the answer to the question to life, the universe and everything is always 42."_

Asami stifled a laugh. "Listen, uber-nerd…..before you start quoting Monty Python, I need to pick that sadistic brain of yours. I need your expertise, on dreams."

_"Expertise? I'll lend you my expertise, but I want it returned when you're done with it, and not all sticky with your jizz."_

Asami couldn't help it, he laughed then, and ran a finger through his perfect hair, and one strand fell in his eyes. He examined it for gray hair briefly. "It wasn't jizz, it was soda on that term paper, and despite that you still gave me a passing grade."

_"You still owe me a paper on deviant interpersonal relationships, though."_

"I lived through deviant interpersonal relationships. You've met my mother, haven't you?" Asami said and he moved the toothpick from side to side, inhaling that cinnamon flavor admiringly. "So, I should get extra credit, right?"

"_Fine, I'll give you that…..she's a fantastic woman worthy of study."_

"If you can get her into a padded cell, I'm sure you'd be a famous psychiatrist." He would love to see someone pick his mother's brain apart. It might answer a lot of questions. Questions he wanted to ask, but never really wanted to know the answers to.

"_But your mother is not why you've called me, is it."_

"Very perceptive, but then again, perception is your strong point." He said, and took two more steps until he was standing at the end of his very large, ornate and pretentious desk.

"That, and knot tying …it's someone close to you, or you wouldn't be calling. Your pet?"

"Again, perceptive. My _pet, _as you put it, is suffering from panic attacks, nightmares, and…."

_"And?"_

"Post-traumatic stress disorder perhaps?" He replied, and flicked the chewed toothpick across the room into the trash, making a basket on the first try.

_"The mind's folly dances upon the waves but eventually it drowns in the gray matter which contains it."_

"Is that your professional opinion?"

_"Would you even trust my professional opinion?"_

"I'm calling you against my better judgment, aren't I?" He chuckled slightly. His Sensei could be infuriating and entertaining at the same time. "I would appreciate you coming to see him, as soon as you can."

_"That would be yesterday, Asami-san?"_

"Yesterday would be convenient. I e-mailed you the doctor reports, did you get them? "

_"I scanned them. He's either the luckiest person in the world, or the unluckiest." _

"Depends on the volume of the liquid in the glass you're holding." He replied and grinned at that remark, since no one was around to point out how witty that sounded, even if it wasn't.

_"And the physicist says the glass is full, it just depends on your perception of the contents._

"When did you change academia?"

_"Fu fu. When did you fall so far, as to actually care about someone other than yourself?"_

Instead of answering, he posed a question of his own. "Speaking of caring, how is your lover?"

_"He's a little tied up at the moment."_

"What was his infraction?" His sensei's lover and pet was a man so beautiful that even straight as an arrow men swooned at his feet. Asami himself had tried to win the young student's heart, but he only had eyes for Sensei. Only would follow Sensei with those puppy-dog eyes of his and that soft mouth. They were still together, 13 years later, the master and the pet, the two lovers, the two partners that to this day, kept their relationship secret.

"_The tamagoyaki was a little overdone this morning, so…was your pet born wild?"_

"He's as wild as they come…he's shown very little fear…until now."

_"No fear? He's visited your chamber of horrors, I'm assuming."_

"Briefly."

_"Ah, therein lies the rub."_

"Quit showing off by quoting Shakespeare, you never get it right."

_"Quit showing off by knowing I'm misquoting Shakespeare, Asami-san. So, did your pet enjoy the chamber of horrors?"_

"He wasn't impressed by your excellent taste, as much as tried to persuade him otherwise."

_"Fu fu. Your pet….I would love to get my hands on him."_

"Your hands you keep to yourself. I'm not in the sharing mood."

_"Possessive aren't we?"_

He didn't answer. Instead, he took two paces and stopped in front of his packed bookshelf, the freshly dusted books speaking volumes about his education. The entire works of Shakespeare, his economics and business textbooks, dozens of books on psychology, all in alphabetical order (Kirishima's doing). And down towards the bottom, almost hidden was the book his Sensei had given him, and the reason he required his knowledge….the well-worn tome entitled simply _Lucid Dreaming. _It was why Asami could do the things he did and not be plagued by thoughts like conscience, principles or ethics. It was why his dreams were free of the ghosts of people he's eliminated.

_"Asami-sama…..just put him on Xanax already. Why bother me with it?"_

_"_I promised him I wouldn't pump him full of drugs, and…I've seen what it does to people. The zombie apocalypse that people are so eagerly waiting, has already started."

_"So, you're going the homeopathic route? So I was right. He sounds like more than just your pet…..so, when's the wedding?"_

Asami's mouth twitched. "I'm not the marrying kind, Sensei."

_"Ho ho…..that made me laugh, almost. You are familiar with what laughter sounds like right? If anyone needs someone at his side…."_

"Never mind, how soon can you get here?"

_"After classes, I'll be there about 5. Have a good cigar and a bottle of scotch waiting."_

_"_Your tastes haven't changed, Sensei."

_"Neither have yours, Asami-san. In the meantime, I would suggest your home be…accident proof. We wouldn't want the little wifey to hurt himself, now would we? You get my meaning?"_

"I get it. I'll be expecting you at 5, don't be late."

_"Then I'll be there at 6." Click_

Asami took two more steps and was back where he started behind his desk, in his favorite spot, the distant Tokyo skyline a constant reminder of the influence of innovation, the power of dreams.

_And without dreams, the world would be a very a very dull place indeed._


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Akihito woke, but didn't open his eyes, which was the usual reaction people had when they were greeted by the sun and those fucking singing birds. Yeah, he was an animal lover, but he wouldn't mind taking a pot shot at those birds and their fucking bird song. _Tweet tweet tweet. _It was a conspiracy...of course it was. One day the birds all got together at some secret bird meeting and proposed…._hey, let's drive the humans crazy and sing right outside their bedroom window while they are trying to sleep! It will drive them nuts!_

Birds aside, there was no going back to sleep now, as he heard the alarm on his phone buzz. That was another annoying noise, but that one, he could stop with a smack of his hand. Remind him not to take those damn Ambien pills anymore.

Stretching, he tried to snuggle in the covers, kind of half-wishing the mattress would open up and swallow him whole. This bed was too comfortable, his body so warm, that to open his eyes would detract from the fluffy goodness in which he found himself cocooned.

Another reason for keeping his eyes shut tight was that he could avoid or a least delay looking at Asami's face, avoid seeing that look of pity in those eyes. He had seen it before, but not like last night. Last night, Akihito couldn't look at him. But it didn't matter, that expression of pity was now burned into his mind. There was no running from it because Asami or his goons would just find him and bring his sorry ass home anyway.

Asami tried to hide it, but since he'd returned to Asami's side, Asami's eyes would flicker with that pity. Not the compassion kind of pity, like how you might feel for the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to be free…..no, it wasn't that kind of pity. What he saw in those eyes was disappointment. In Asami himself? Or in him?

Whatever that look meant, to witness it made him feel like a tack was being shoved up his fingernail and he just watched as it bled all over his hand. And he did nothing to stop the bleeding, did nothing to stop the pain.

"You're awake." Asami said. "I can always tell….._kitten_." He said with sarcasm.

He flinched. He was never going to get used to that pet name, even if when Asami said it, it was more in a teasing tone. One eye opened reluctantly, the sleep in that eye making the lids stick together before it opened fully. The other eye followed suit. "I'm going to be late….what time is it?"

"It's past noon. You need to eat." He said, and there it was, in all its angsty goodness, that look of pity, as if Akihito was an emaciated stray dog that needed to be put down. That look had taken on a darker turn since last night's demon filled nightmare.

"I'll eat later." He replied and he turned over and pulled the covers over his shoulder, ignoring Asami and his face. "I'm not hungry."

"I don't think so." He said, and yanked the covers off of him, revealing his semi-nakedness, at least Asami had put on his boxers after the bathtub tryst that left bruises on his back.

"Asami!" He said, and tried to cover his body with his hands. Why he was suddenly shy, he didn't know. But he didn't want Asami getting ideas, because his ass was on fire and he wasn't in the mood. He suddenly glared at him, but stopped just as suddenly as Asami raised an eyebrow. Asami always saw his defiant glares as an invitation to sex. Explain that logic, if you will. "I hate when you look at me that way."

"What way am I looking at you?" He said. "This is my normal face." Well, as normal a face as an evil, sadistic crime lord could have.

"With pity." He sighed. "Don't pity me, I don't like it. And I don't need it."

Asami's mouth twitched. "I don't recall why I would need to pity you, Akihito."

"And yet, you do. I can see it in your face when I grab my crutches, I can hear it in your voice when I bring up my leg." He wasn't arguing with him, no, he just was stating a fact. "You say you don't have issues with it, yet you can barely look at it."

"I prefer to look elsewhere, like here," He palmed Akihito's crotch, rubbing it back and forth.

"Don't distract me." He said, and pushed the hand away even though it was starting to feel good. "Tell me the truth, Asami. No games. I want the honest truth. It bothers you! Most people, normal people that is, would be bothered by it, at least at first. Granted, you are far from normal, I mean…"

Asami narrowed his eyes but so far, had said nothing.

"I mean…uh….I'm still bothered by it and I have to live with it! Especially when people stare at me with that look….you know….that o_h you poor thing _look."

He waited for Asami to say something, and when he just stared blanked face, he shrugged and continued his tirade. He sat up, his hands shaking with anger. "I can stand it from people I don't know. But from you? That's the last thing I expected to see in your eyes, Asami, the last thing."

"Do you mind if I sit down for this soliloquy?"

"Bah!" He said, and rose up and grabbed his crutches, ready to storm out.

"Don't." Asami said, "I'm not finished."

Akihito turned and leaned on his crutches and cocked his head. "Fine." He said with a note of exasperation in his voice.

"Not pity." He said, and crossed the room so he could rub his fingers through his soft hair. "Not pity…."

"So you keep saying." Akihito said, and pulled from Asami's grasp and turned to the bathroom door. "I've got stuff I've got to do today. I'm getting fitted for my new leg. Or….do you not want to hear about that?"

"I'm well aware of your appointment." He said forcefully, "and it's not pity, Akihito.

"I get the feeling you have something more to say, but you can't say it." He paused and took a breath. "Well, I'll say it for you. It's written all over your face."

"Is it? Am I that transparent?" He asked. If guns and eyebrows could talk, then Asami's face could fill a lengthy book. The book would be called _The Perverted Tales of Asami _and everyone would buy it, because it would have his picture on the cover. It would be a horrible novel, written poorly, but it would be a best seller anyway. It was all in how you marketed it.

"I'm just your broken toy, Asami, something you can't fix. No matter how much money you have….and that bothers you."

"I beg to differ."

"Beg whatever you want, believe whatever you want, but your eyes tell the truth….they always have." He shrugged. "So if you want to pity me, fine. Just keep it to yourself."

"It's not pity!"

"Enough!" He yelled and he wavered a bit on his crutches. He took a breath and tried to calm down. Asami looked very angry. He had pushed the issue, perhaps too much. "It's not pity then. You win your little game of semantics…..but then, that's what your best at, right? Playing games, messing with my head?"

Asami mouth twitched again. "This ends now."

"Then, if it isn't pity, why don't you enlighten me. What is it, because I'm not a mind reader."

There was silence then, only the wind through the sakura trees showed that life outside of their gates continued. Asami crossed to the window, his back to Akihito, seemingly lost in thought.

"Trying to find the answer in the Tokyo skyline?" He spat.

Asami took an even breath, as if he was preparing to sing. "My hands are stained with your blood, Akihito." He said, and he looked at his hands, splaying them out as if looking for the stains.

"I don't….I don't understand. How….."

"Stained….because I wasn't there. I couldn't protect you. I couldn't even come to Afghanistan to be at your bedside."

"Asami…we weren't together then." He pointed out. "That wasn't your job."

"Didn't matter. I sent you away to protect you from the people that would hurt you, but you got hurt anyway."

"Are you saying that fate stepped in?"

"Fate? Destiny?" He flipped a toothpick in his mouth, because the words coming through his lips made the bile rise in his throat. "I suppose so. When I see that leg, it reminds me….." He looked into Akihito's eyes, which were wide, and brimming with unshed tears.

"Asami don't say anymore….please." He begged.

"It reminds me….of how I failed you."

Akihito just stood there staring at Asami's pained expression, as if this declaration was so unlike him, that saying it was causing him physical harm.

"Fate…." He sniffed and rubbed the tears from his eyes. "My dad always says that a man is master of his own fate."

"Your dad is a wise man." He said.

"You've met him and can still say that with a straight face?" He said, and laughed half-heartedly. "Asami." He said, and spanned the distance between them, and touched his shoulder gently. "Would you have prevented me from going to Afghanistan?"

"Yes. I would have tied you up to keep you from going." He replied, the broken toothpick a reminder that he'd been absentmindedly chewing on it.

"You would have denied me that chance?" Akihito asked.

"Afghanistan is dangerous….you didn't know what you were getting yourself into."

"Tokyo is dangerous, the moon is dangerous, the bathtub is dangerous." He pointed out. "I still would have gone. You couldn't have stopped me."

"When did you grow up? When I wasn't looking?" Asami said, and turned to him. "No, you are still my adorable Akihito." He said, and gripped his face and lightly brushed Akihito's lips with his own. "Well, as much as this dialogue wasted time we could have been doing much more fun things," He whispered, "You, my little kitten, are real cute when you have your claws out."

"You bastard….I'm glad we had this little…..conversation, and you're not cute when you're all angry." He whispered back, as if someone could hear them. "Next time, as my mother would say, use your words." Asami kissed him lightly and he relaxed into it before pulling back, reluctantly. "By the way, I think I like the cinnamon toothpicks the best." He said, and kissed Asami's bottom lip. "I have to go, I'll eat at the hospital."

"I can go with you, you know."

"I'm late, and you are still in your pajamas, and you take _forever_ to get ready….what is up with that?"

Asami smirked. "Suoh will be waiting downstairs…..no arguments, no ditching." He warned. "And be sure you're home by five, we are having a visitor."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah." Asami ruffled his hair and gave a playful pat on his butt as Akihito tottered into the bathroom. "Who is it?" He called from the bathroom.

Asami flicked another toothpick in his mouth. "Someone you'll like I think. Someone with impeccable taste."

"Really." He said and headed for the door as fast as his crutches could take him. He blanched suddenly. "What?" He said, and turned to find a thoroughly amused Asami with a grin so large, he looked like a clown. A sadistic clown.

"Bye." Asami said, and gave him a little wave of dismissal. "See you later."

Akihito paled. "Just for that, see if I ever come back!" He yelled from the elevator.


	18. Chapter 18

AN: The song is Garbage - #1 Crush (the Romeo and Juliet version) - I can't post the link. but you can find it on youtube.

Chapter 18

Promptly at 4:57pm, Asami's ears pricked when the front door opened followed by the sound of one shoe being kicked off, followed by another shoe. Two shoes? He reached for his gun on instinct, because at some point, reaching for his gun became as instinctual as breathing. He actually hoped it was some hired killer to come knocking at his door, ready to shove bullets up his sorry ass, because his finger needed a workout. Seeing as assassins never took off their shoes, unless they were polite assassins, he figured it had to be his kitten, returning home from a romp in the city. Still one could hope.

"Dammit." Came a voice from the downstairs and Asami relaxed. His _kitten_ was home and right on time. He was disappointed he wasn't late actually because he was in the mood to break in the new_ "toys"_ he received by courier from his toy supplier/sensei. But it didn't matter. There were other things Akihito could be punished for (real or imagined). Not that he needed an excuse.

"What are you dammiting, Akihito? " He asked as he descended the polished wooded staircase in record speed (he timed himself once). He knew full well that _dammiting _wasn't a word, but since he was so awesome, he'd make it a word and the dictionary people would have no choice but to include it in the next edition. If they didn't, the fishes in Tokyo Bay required feeding.

"I forgot about the hicky!" He said, and pointed to the purplish-blue hicky on his neck. Asami grinned predatorily. "You should have seen the look the doctor gave me!"

"What kind of look?" He asked. The doctor or anyone else better not have gotten any ideas about his Akihito, like he'd just spread his ass for everybody just as soon as Asami's back was turned.

"I don't know, I think he was shocked, I guess. He's an older guy, like in his forties or something. Like really old." He said, and gave Asami a big grin, almost a sadist's smile, but on Akihito it looked more charming rather than evil.

He was going to pay for that comment. "Old huh…well, if you're expecting an apology for that hicky, you're not getting one." He said, and Asami cocked his head to look not at the hicky, but the prosthetic Akihito now sported. At least he could look at it, without the bile rising in his throat, but he still felt a little….not guilty…because tough mob bosses never felt guilty about anything, ever. He just felt a little awkward, like he shouldn't be staring. Some of his mother's lessons had sunk in, after all.

It looked like Akihito had grown a new leg. "Wow." He said a word he never really uses, but this time, the moment called for it. "That's some contraption."

"Yeah…cool huh? It's new, from Europe." He said and did a little dance, which looked more like a butt wiggle with a limp. "I'm hoping I can hit the dance clubs again with this. It looks real right?" He said, and he modeled it some more, taking a few shaky steps before adjusting his balance with a hand on the couch. The leg made a funny mechanical noise, which was very faint. "Still getting used to it."

"You can dance right here, right now, with me." He said and crossed quickly over and grabbed Akihito's hand. "Come on." He said, yanking him into the other room and touching a button on the stereo. Obviously, Akihito went along, it wasn't like he was given a choice.

"Ouch! Don't pull me!" He yelled. "Bastard!"

Some woman was moaning through the loudspeakers before a drum beat started. He didn't recognize the tune at all, and the lyrics were in English. But obviously, Asami knew it. He had never heard Asami hum to a piece of music, but he started humming along with the melody.

"Why are we dancing? Don't you have a guest coming over?" He asked, a confused look on his face, like he'd wandered into a fun zone and didn't know the way out.

"You've never danced with me." He said. "I plan to correct that."

"I haven't because you're a man, obviously, and since when have you become so….so sappy?" He asked almost cautiously.

"Sappy? I'm not sappy, I'm nostalgic." He asked, and pulled Akihito into a tight hold. No, he wasn't the type of man to be sappy. Sappy = girls. Sappy = romance. He wasn't sappy, not by a long shot. Tough mob bosses don't get sappy.

Asami wasn't surprised that they both tried to take the man's position, but he won, of course. It wasn't much of a battle. He slid his hand down Akihito's spine and grasped him at the small of his back. Akihito took a sharp breath as if the wind had been knocked out of him.

"Take my hand." He said, reaching his hand out and grasping it firmly.

"I'm never learned to dance like this." He said apologetically.

"Let the music take you." Asami said, and stared deeply into Akihito's wide, beautiful eyes. Akihito was already blushing, an unwilling victim of Asami's heated gaze.

_I would die for you,  
I would die for you,  
I've been dying just to feel you by my side,  
To know that you're mine._

I will cry for you,  
I will cry for you,  
I will wash away your pain with all my tears,  
And drown your fear.

I will pray for you,  
I will pray for you,  
I will sell my soul for something pure and true,  
Someone like you.

See your face every place that I'm walking,  
Hear your voice everytime I'm talking,  
You will believe in me,  
_And I will never be ignored._

I will burn for you,  
Feel pain for you,  
I will twist a knife and bleed my aching heart,  
And tear it apart.

I will lie for you,  
Beg and steal for you,  
I will crawl on hands and knees until you see,  
You're just like me.

Violate all the love that I'm missing,  
Throw away all the pain that I'm living,  
You will believe in me,  
And I can never be ignored.

They danced slowly, carefully, Akihito stumbling with his balance. It was so endearing as Akihito fumbled with his hands, blushed and looked everywhere but at his face. He was still the coy young man he had met two years ago even though he probably wasn't. Time, circumstances and fate had seen to that. It wasn't Asami who had changed him. It wasn't him at all.

Akihito relaxed and let Asami lead, somehow his steps shuffled on their own and they swayed back and forth in time to the music. Akihito rested his head on Asami's shoulder and took a deep breath, inhaling Asami's wonderful scent of earthy sandalwood cologne and cinnamon.

"Are you happy, Akihito?" Asami asked when there was a quiet dip in the music. Akihito frowned and didn't answer. "Akihito, answer me." He commanded.

"Well, I'm not unhappy." He responded, evenly and carefully. "My mother called me today." He didn't say what she had called him, but Asami guessed she called him on the phone.

"What did your mother have to say?" He asked, spinning his pet in a careful circle. The new leg whirred as the ankle compensated for the sudden movement and appeared to stabilize.

He sighed. "She brought up grandchildren. I guess she finally realized that there wouldn't be any." He snuggled closer into Asami's chest and sighed heavily. "I wish I could have kept them in the dark."

"They would have eventually figured it out. At least, your mom would have anyway." He pulled Akihito closer. "I don't know about your dad."

He chuckled against Asami's chest. "What about your family, do they know? Or were you really sired by demons and raised by wolves, like the rumors say." He asked, seemingly lost in the slow movement of their rocking. The music was starting to grow on him.

"My mother could easily be called a demon." He said darkly. "And she _should_ know. She walked in on me and my senpai going at it often enough. She's in deep denial…..so deep it probably won't ever see the light of day."

"Your senpai, was he your first love?" He asked.

"No….my first love was my nanny…and she rejected me when I confessed to her. She left the next morning, although I've come to find out, it was my father who kicked her out, probably because she wouldn't sleep with him."

"Ewwww….how old were you?"

"I was eight." He replied.

Akihito laughed, his eyes lighting up with delight. "A broken heart at 8? That's so dramatic."

"Laughing at my pain….how evil of you, Akihito." He chastised. "So, since we're sharing _our past…._who is your first love?"

"If you think I'm going to say you, you're sadly mistaken." He said, and sighed again into Asami's shirt, one of the shirts he always wore when he was home working. It was gray, of course.

Asami had worked hard today, well if you could call pushing paper from one side of his desk to the other work. But mainly, he listened today, as Kirishima informed him of certain things about certain man. Things he didn't really want to know. Things it was better he didn't know. But now that he knew them… "Well, are you going to share it with me?

_I would die for you,  
I would kill for you,  
I will steal for you,  
I'd do time for you,  
I will wait for you,  
I'd make room for you,  
I'd sail ships for you,  
To be close to you,  
To be part of you,  
Cos' I believe in you,  
I believe in you,  
I would die for you._

Another verse played again, and Akihito fell into silence, his head still buried in Asami's shoulder. "This is an odd choice of songs to dance to."

"I don't think so, it fits my mood. So, are you going to continue keeping me in the dark?" He said, his gold eyes narrowing.

He took a deep even breath. "It was _Misa Misa,_ from _Death Note_, if you must know. So tease me all you want."

He was shocked at that revelation. "Your first love was a 2D girl? Now who is being dramatic?"

He shrugged. "She just was so cute!" Akihito pointed out, his eyes sparkling with innocence and delight.

"Cute, so that's your type." He said coolly.

"Yeah. So unlike you." He grinned up at him for a moment before looking away. "Actually, funny story….my dad gave me my first camera and I went down to Otaku-Con to take photos of the cosplayers, just to practice? Well, I didn't get many photos that day."

"Why not?" He asked.

"Promise you won't laugh?"

"I'm not in a laughing mood today, Akihito." He said gloomily.

Akihito's mouth froze in a silent _O_. He scratched the back of his neck, like he didn't know what to say. "Uh…..well…anyway, there were so many Misa Misa cosplayers that year that I spent most of the time in the bathroom wacking off."

He wasn't in a laughing mood, but if he was, he'd be laughing no matter what he had promised. "That _is _a funny story." He said flatly.

"You really aren't in a good mood." He replied, his hand resting on Asami's cheek. "What is it….or will you share it with me? Is it work?"

He rested his chin on the top of Akihito's head. They still danced quietly, just swaying back and forth, not really moving. Asami let out a long exhale, in frustration. The things that he wanted to know, the things he needed to ask, had to be asked. He couldn't be kept in the dark any longer.

The sun was beginning to set, casting long uneven shadows through the blinds into the room. "Akihito…ask me if I'm happy."

"All right, are you happy?" Akihito asked. He let go of Asami's hand and put his other hand on his other shoulder. Akihito's hair smelled rich and fruity, it was stronger now than before. Some girl's perfume.

"I'd be happier, if you'd forget all about Keir."

"I barely remember him, so I don't see how I could forget what I can't remember." He replied. "I've told you that before."

"I don't think so." He said, and gripped his chin so he could stare into Akihito's wide eyes, which had gotten wider with this revelation. "You call for him in your sleep."

"I can't control what I dream about." He pointed, trying to jerk his chin away. "Is this how you were going to help me _solve_ my problem? By dancing to weird music and talking me to death?"

Asami's top lip curled. "Did you sleep with him?" He asked slowly.

"I told you, I don't know! I don't remember!" He yelled and struggled unsuccessfully to unwrap himself out of Asami's tight hold. "What is this….this…interrogation? And why does it matter? We weren't together then!"

"Are you aware that Keir was kicked out of the Marines for bedding not one, but several of his subordinates?" He asked, he tried to fight the irritation rising in his voice, but he couldn't help it. "There were even implications that he raped one of them. Did he mention that?" Of course, he kind of, sort of raped Akihito the first they met so….well, that's kind of neither here nor there.

"What? No, that can't be…he wasn't like that."

"I thought you don't remember. Is that a lie now?" He accused.

"No! It's just….it can't be true!" He tried to pull away as the music hit a fevered pitch, the tortured voice building on a minor note that continued until it echoed off the walls of the room, almost reverberating like an earthquake.

"The song's not over."

"I'm sure you weren't celibate after you dumped me." He was yelling now, his pitch so strained his voice had to hurt.

"Yeah, I locked myself in a nunnery." He said sarcastically. "We had lots of fun, me and the nuns."

"Yeah sure. Nice double standard, there." He replied and tried to struggle away again, like a fly in a spider's tangled web, he was locked in Asami's strong arms. "Let me go. I don't like this."

"Dream about me instead, call for only me in your sleep." He ran his fingers through Akihito's hair it was still two-toned, blond on the top, black on the bottom. He looked like a skunk. "Only me, Akihito."

"Are you jealous? Of a dead man?" He asked, and the corners of his eyes pricked with tears. "Dammit, Asami. Somehow you can always make me to cry." Asami pulled him roughly to him, and almost squeezing him like a snake, Asami planted a rough kiss on Akihito's protesting lips.

"Nice performance." A high voice said, followed by sharp clapping of two hands together (one hand doesn't work as well). "And if you can't tell behind my coke bottle glasses, I'm looking in your direction, Asami-san."

"You have really poor timing." Asami asked, finally letting Akihito go. "How did you get in here, Sensei?"

"Suoh let me in, with all that yelling…you couldn't hear me. He was a little concerned." He pointed out. "You haven't changed Asami."

He bowed. "Neither have you Sensei," and it was the honest truth. The man hadn't aged at all. It was like time had stopped. He still was the handsome Sensei with the raven hair and confident swagger. He must be doing Botox, seeing as the man was pushing 60. "This is Akihito, my kitten." He said and laughed when Akihito winced. "This is my Sensei Shimizu, a dreams expert and a man with impeccable taste."

"Assssaaamiii." He said under his breath. "It's nice to meet you," he said while bowing.

He bowed shallowly back. "So…now that we have that out of the way….." He said, sitting down on a red leather chair which squeaked under him, his right leg dangled in a circle as he lit up a cigarette quickly and blew the smoke out in little rings, "who started it."

Akihito pointed his index finger in Asami's direction. "He did."

Sensei laughed. "Oh Asami-san, there are better ways of marking your territory. Might I suggest a collar and a bell?"

"Marking…what the….." Akihito fumbled. "I'm not a pet!"

"So says the pet. Have a seat." He said, as if this was his house and they were the guests. Akihito sat. "Trust me. I will deal with Asami's problem before I deal with yours. He's being a bad master. Aren't you Asami?"

"I won't validate that with a response."

"He's just upset because he let you out today, and you came back smelling like perfume." He said, and Asami visibly cringed. He was not the type of man to cringe, unless it was Sensei or his mother chastising him. "Old lady perfume, I might add."

"Perfume?" He sniffed and cringed himself. "Oh…that…the nurse at the hospital hugged me, she's the grandma type, likes to give hugs."

"If I hadn't walked in, you'd be getting fucked right now. Probably tied up and fucked right now, isn't that right, Asami?"

"Probably. You did send me that new box of toys, and you said you wouldn't get here until 6…."

"And you took me literally?" He stubbed out his cigarette in a potted plant. "Tsk tsk….picking a fight…..how pedestrian, Asami."

"It almost worked, didn't it?"

"You and….and..your game playing! If you wanted nookie, you could have asked, you know."

"Oooo the kitten has claws….meow!" Sensei grinned.

"It's so cute when he gets riled up." Asami pointed out.

"I'm sitting right here!" He protested.

"That you are. He's a cute one all right, Asami-san. I can see why you like him so much." Sensei said.

Akihito fumed. "This is ridiculous. So all that stuff you said about Keir….it wasn't true?"

"I'm afraid it was. He wasn't such a nice guy, I guess."

"Well, neither are you. Guess I like bad boys." He sneered.

"Still in training I see?" He replied, his coke bottle glasses reflecting orange in the diminishing sunset.

"Like I said, he may be untrainable." Asami replied. "But I like them that way."

"I'm sitting right here." He protested a little louder.

"That you are, pet. You let him sit on the furniture?" He said, pointing his cigarette towards the couch where Akihito was sitting.

"He's paper trained." He replied.

"I'm sitting right here!" He said even louder.

"I would suggest you don't speak until you're spoken to. You don't want me to punish you, do you? I will if necessary." Asami smirked.

Akihito squeaked. "I didn't sign up for this."

"Yet somehow you fell down the rabbit hole, isn't that right? And you bounce back, and you keep falling down that rabbit hole."

"That he does." Asami commented. "It's part of his charm."

"Awwww…..somewone's in wove." He said in baby talk. Asami rolled his eyes and searched for a toothpick in his pocket. Not finding one, he rose and went to pour himself a glass of amber colored whatever he was drinking. He wasn't picky.

"Want one?" He asked his sensei.

"Yeah, make it a double, will you?" He poured quickly and handed him the drink, completely ignoring Akihito's shocked look. He looked like his face was going to melt, like he couldn't believe Sensei talked to him like that. Not everyone kissed his ass. Actually, only four people in the world could talk to him that way: His sensei, his mother, Kirishima….and Akihito himself. If the boy ever figured it out, he was going to be in trouble.

"So….Akihito…." Sensei said, turning to the boy who still had his mouth dropped open. He was quiet for once, as quiet as someone could be when they were almost choking on their own saliva. "…let's talk about your problem….shall we?"


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19 (AN: Don't hate me!)

"Don't you have somewhere to be, Asami-san?" Sensei asked, turning to face Asami and pulling his glasses down to rest on the bridge of his nose. Akihito choked back a snort, which sounded so pig-like it made him snort louder. And then he almost laughed.

_Almost. _

He would have laughed, if the situation called for it. But he couldn't laugh, not now. But that just made him want to laugh more, so instead he kept it inside, only a slight shaking of his body threated to betray him.

"Not and continue to eavesdrop." Asami retorted in an irritated tone. Asami shot him a look, not a glare, just a slow shifting of his pupils. The rest of his head stayed still. He kind of liked when Asami did that, it was, no not hot….it was….ok, it was hot. "Don't worry, Akihito, he won't tease you, that's my job."

Asami must have thought his shaking and red face (he assumed it was red, it usually was), as apprehension, when in fact it was just pure delight. He stuck a sucker he pulled from his pocket in his mouth to further contain the laugh building within him and gave Asami a glare of his own. "Whatever….I'll be fine." He said.

"I'd rather stay, if it is all the same to you." He said, taking a big swallow of his drink. Asami looked like he was drinking gold colored water, the way he threw back that liquor. That probably wasn't a good thing.

"No it is NOT all the same, nothing ever is." Sensei said forcefully. "In other words, you can't stay. Go make a soufflé or something. You CAN cook, right?"

"I prefer not to." He said, and narrowed his eyes menacingly, crossing his arms in a huff.

"OOOOO….so scary." He said, and beamed brightly, his eye teeth poking through his lower lip.

Akihito chimed in. "One time, he burned the cereal, true story." Akihito pointed out, he was joking of course, as Asami never cooked (in fact the man never ate either. Maybe the man survived on air, toothpicks, Starbucks and Akihito's…um….sexual leavings).

Akihito's witty (?) remark earned him another glare (lots of glaring today) from a pair of gold eyes and a "_you are in trouble" _teacher look from Sensei from behind those glasses. Suddenly he wished the couch was a time portal so he could escape into another dimension, where there were no glaring perverted sadistic evil cheap bastard crime lords and their equally evil sadistic weird senseis.

He clenched his fists and rested them on his thighs, pretending to be very interested in the blank wall to the right of him. Asami really liked the minimalist look. Either that or he was too cheap to buy art, probably the latter.

"Go alphabetize your Liza Minnelli records then." He said giving Asami the same teacher look reserved for naughty students and juvenile delinquents.

"Really Sensei, who was the one who turned me onto Miss Liza? If you can remember back that far, that is." There was a lot of weird grinning going on, at least from Sensei. Asami looked the same as always except his smirk was a little more prominent. Akihito had never seen so many perfect white teeth in his life.

"Who's Liza?" Akihito said.

"You're rapidly becoming my least favorite person, Asami. You're out of the will." Sensei said quickly.

"As if you'd ever die." Asami laughed. "And here you promised me your prized toy collection."

"Who's Liza?" He said again, feeling ignored and left out.

"Just the used ones." Sensei glared again. At least, Akihito assumed he was glaring, it was rather hard to tell. "You need to go work or something…..you still do work don't you?" Sensei asked, his legs wiggling in impatience like his pants were on fire.

"Who's Liza?" He asked again in futility.

"Yeah, I work." He said shooting a funny look at Akihito like a mixture of sympathy and support. Actually it looked the same as always except he wasn't smirking for once. "No touching, he's mine. Just pretend he has a force field around him."

"I won't touch your kitten, Asami-san. Master's honor." He said, and he saluted, sort of, with his palm across his chest. He looked like Sebastian from _Black Butler_ right then, a rather more sadistic and scarier version of Sebastian, which said a lot, since Sebastian was a demon (a hot demon, not that he'd ever share his Sebastian fetish with Asami).

Nodding and bowing quickly, Asami left, climbing the staircase two steps at a time (because he could). Akihito had never seen him dismissed that way by anyone before. This was weird.

"Oh and Akihito….if you have to ask who Liza is, you will never know." He called from upstairs before he closed his office door. Not quietly, mind you, but not slamming it either.

"What the heck?"

"Awwww….we hurt his feelings." Sensei said sarcastically. "So…now that we've gotten rid of the student…..it's now time for the master, I mean the sensei to have a look inside your brain."

"Whatever." He said in huff, his emotions going up and down like a roller coaster. First he was happy and amused and now he was irritated. "That master thing…what is it with you guys and that….that…whole bag of bullshit?" He asked carefully.

"Does it amuse you?"

"Do I sound amused? No, it doesn't AMUSE me. It frightens me."

"Your relationship is still new, still young…..the master/pet _thing_ as you call it, takes years of deep trust to develop properly. Like a good aged sake, you know?"

_Trust….the word stuck out like it was written with a ghost's hands in the air._

"How long have you and your, uh…..pet…been together?" Akihito asked.

"My pet is also my partner, and has been for 13 years, 13 years and going strong." He replied. "The dynamic of master and pet does not define our relationship. It's just fun."

"Fun. Fun for the master, you mean." He sneered.

"Lots of fun, for both parties, I assure you. If you want to chat about the master/pet relationship, I would be happy to oblige, but I think we have more pressing matters to discuss."

"Do I have too?" He whined pitifully, not recognizing his own voice for a moment. Akihito could feel the sweat pooling in the hollows of his palms. The nails cutting into his skin started to feel like tiny odd-shaped knives. "You're here to cure me or whatever?"

"I'm here to help you on the road to recovery. But I already know your problem, solving it, though will require team effort, a team of three….you, me and Asami-san."

"Is there any other way to solve a problem?"

"Not for the Japanese, I can't speak for the rest of the world." He stated flatly, pulling a huge file out of his equally huge (one might call it brobdingnagian and one would be right) satchel and laid it on the coffee table with a loud thud. It looked like the schematics for one of his more complicated cameras, written in ten different languages.

"How long has it been, Akihito," he began, as he leaned back in the red chair, flipping his unlit cigarette like that Harry Potter boy flips his wand, "since you've slept well…. without the aid of drugs or being fucked into the mattress?"

He blushed. There was no doubt about the blush this time he could feel his cheeks burning. "Two months and some change, almost three months." He replied. "Before then, I was on heavy medication, the self-medicated kind mostly, you know how it is."

"I do." He grinned. "Three months is a long time….." He replied and finally lit the cigarette and took a long drag, "Three months is forever, when the sun won't set and your eyes won't close."

"It feels like forever, then." He replied gruffly, his shoulders rising in falling in a half-hearted shrug. "Forever…it can't go on…uh..forever, can it?"

"Not and keep your sanity." He blew a ring of smoke. "One ring to rule them all…." He blew out another ring. "One ring to find them…..." He blew out a third ring. "One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."

"Ummm…." Akihito watched the three rings fade and eventually disappear altogether.

"So, what binds you to this darkness, Akihito…..what do you feel when your eyes eventually close and you dream?" He asked, his sockless feet now occupying a good part of the coffee table.

"Don't you want to know what's in my dream?" He asked with confusion.

"No, I don't. What I want to know…." He picked up the file and waved the pages at him, "is how you feel."

"The only way to describe it…..it's like I'm lost. And I'm not sure which way I'm supposed to turn…..and I have no map, no guide or anything…just lost." He shrugged again and leaned back on the couch and put his feet up. "Shouldn't I be lying down?"

"I'm not that kind of psychiatrist. But if you'd like to share things with me, I can listen. Perhaps you can tell me 101 sex tales starring you and Asami."

His eyebrows went up. "You're as perverted as he is, maybe more so and that's saying a lot." He said, and sat back up, his back straight and stiff with tension. "What kind of psychiatrist are you? I mean, are you even qualified?"

"You must know Asami-san well enough that he would only consult the best in the field, actually, the only one in my field, not that I'm bragging mind you…..hell ya, I'm bragging." He said, his ego inflating with every clipped word.

"Oh." He said and quickly added, "Sensei…to be honest, I don't know him at all."

"You know enough to realize that I'm right, though. He would go to the ends of the earth for you, he would kill for you, die for you." He said, and rose and went over to the fireplace and spat into it. "I think, judging by that face, and knowing Asami's background, he already has? I'm right, neh?"

Akihito was making a face, probably a face of utter horror. "Is that supposed to make me feel better? Does that sound like a rational man to you?"

"Are you in the state to make assumptions about rationality? How do we know this conversation is even happening? How do you know you're not dreaming, right now?"

"Because…..because….." He shrugged. "Pinching?"

"Haha hee heehe hooo hoo." He laughed crazily. Akihito was wondering who the crazy one was now, not that he was crazy, just confused. "I suppose men have pondered dreams since the beginning of time. But I don't know, since I wasn't there." He leaned against the empty mantel and scratched his belly. "The hippocampus area of your brain was damaged, yes?"

"Yeah, I guess, one of my own camera cases clocked me in the head." He replied, wondering if he could help himself to a drink but thought better of it. "Is that where memories are stored?"

He nodded. "I'm continued to be amazed at how weak the mind is, and how prone to error. What you have left are only emotional memories of your time in Afghanistan." He pointed to the overstuffed file. "You have, in a nutshell, a very gray nutshell that is, what is called survivor's guilt."

"Guilt. Because I'm alive, I could have told you that."

"So alive, and yet….you've been sleepwalking through it all, even when you're wide awake." He pushed a button near the fireplace and shrugged when nothing happened. "Like this fireplace…..are you just for show, are you just taking up space?"

"I might as well not be here." He shrugged again. "I don't like feeling that way."

"No one does. How deep is this rabbit hole you've fallen in?" He asked, and grabbed the carafe of brandy and sat down with it. "Is it so deep that there is no coming back?"

He chuckled, not warmly, just chuckled at the irony. "Asami would call it the abyss. I think that's deeper than a hole, don't you think? So yes, how do you climb out of a hole so deep that the sun doesn't reach the bottom?" Akihito kept looking at that bottle of brandy, it looked so refreshing right now.

"Nice analogy. Sleepwalking….can mean moving through life with a ghost dogging your heels." He said, and pulled the cork out of the stopper with his perfect white teeth and poured an ample amount in his glass. "So what kind of ghost is the one that follows you?"

"What kind?"

"Well, do we need to call Ghost Hunters or something? Or is this the kind that you can say _there's no such thing as spooks _and move on with your life?" He took a large gulp of his drink, his prominent Adam's apple bobbed up and down every time he swallowed.

"I really don't know." He replied, shrugging again. His shoulders were getting a good workout.

"I'd offer you a drink, but I'd rather you'd refrain…for the time being. It interferes with judgment and sleep cycles."

"You're the doctor."

He smiled. "The next time you see that ghost at your door, the one that's sitting on your shoulder right as we speak, use that fire in your eyes….the light I see right now and shoot it one of those glares you give Asami. Trust me, ghosts don't like light."

"My light? I don't understand." He said in confusion, which was as usual. Akihito spent most of his time either confused or full of self-doubt. And those were his good days.

"You don't have to. The next time you dream, will be the last time you will see him, so you should say goodbye then." He said with authority.

"Sensei there will be nothing left if I say goodbye." He felt the wetness on his cheeks even before he realized he had started crying. "Dammit….I hate it when I cry."

"Yeah, your eyes are leaking." Sensei said, and took off his glasses to reveal sharp, vivid brown eyes, "Akihito….you must realize, sometimes there is nothing left to say BUT goodbye."

Akihito stood and half limped and half paced to the window that overlooked the garden. The fireflies were busy spreading their light, blinking on and off like a roadside diner's sign. Crickets called each other for dates using nothing but their back legs. He sighed. "I wish Asami hadn't told me those things he found out about Keir."

"The truth isn't always contained on the pages of men's stories. Men have died from slanderous tongues, seeing as Keir is not here to defend himself I will hold my tongue." He replied. "Asami should have held his as well."

"Hmm….." He sighed again and fiddled with the drapes, admiring the pattern of gold and black and red sewn into the fabric in swirls. "I'm not sure if I can do it….I think…."

"Don't think on it too much," He interrupted, "thinking gets most people into trouble."

He gave him a half-hearted smile and wiped the tears that had yet to dry on his cheeks. He hated the feel of dried tears, his face always felt dry and crusty, like an endless desert. It always spoke of his failure to keep his emotions in check. "I guess I will do my best, I really don't know what else to do."

"Rely on Asami, I always do. You know….team effort, do your best…and all that."

"Why do you rely on him? Why are you so sure I can to?"

He smiled, a true genuine smile, he could see it radiate to his eyes now that he had taken off his glasses. "Because he ALWAYS keeps his promises. Always. Good night, Akihito. I will see myself out. Give Asami my best." He packed the huge file in his bag and stood to go, the rest of his drink swirling in the glass as he stood. "One last piece of advice, from a friend and not as your doctor," He took a deep breath, "Akihito, don't surrender who you are, but….your heart would be much fuller if you let Asami in, and maybe there would be no room in there for ghosts to haunt your dreams."

"I don't…I don't understand."

"Yeah, I know. You're young. Someday you might understand. Someday, it will be all much clearer." He downed his remaining drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Then again, maybe that someday is tomorrow."

"Good night, Sensei, and thank you." He bowed as he stood by the door, his finger tracing the pattern in the wood as he heard the car drive away.

He contemplated heading upstairs to talk to Asami. He contemplated fixing dinner. He contemplated a lot of things, or just nothing at all as he headed to the garden, a new spot for him to contemplate those building something or nothing thoughts.

The fireflies and crickets stilled as he approached, the flowers had closed up for the night to protect their beauty. Even so, he could still smell that faint scent of roses as he counted the stars twinkling in the night sky. There were three so far, two big ones and one smaller one. The rest were obscured by light pollution and the moon's dominate light.

"Here you are." Asami said, but Akihito continued to stare at the sky, which seemed so much bigger away from the city.

"It's nice out here at night."

"The view from here is nice too." Asami entrapped Akihito in his arms from behind and Akihito didn't fight it, didn't feel like fighting it. "Are you all right?" That deep voice reverberated through his bones and warmed his cheeks.

"He's a wise man, your Sensei. I think….I think I will be okay, it will just take some time." He sighed and gripped Asami's hands clutching them to his chest. "Let's talk about something else."

"We talk about this now. That clock is still ticking, Akihito." His hands roamed across his stomach, down the sides of his thighs and back up in his hair. Akihito found himself wiggling, writhing and almost dancing, trying to keep his balance as Asami touched him, caressed him gently at first, then rougher. "Counting off the seconds, the minutes, the months as they pass us by."

"I don't understand."

"I'm not waiting anymore."

Akihito felt the tears rolling down his cheeks for the second time tonight. "I'll leave tonight then." He turned towards the door but was stopped by a firm, warm hand on his.

"No, you don't understand….." He faced Asami, the tears blurring his vision.

He fought the urge to throw up. "Make me understand, then. Because right now is not the time to play your games Asami. Because right now, I'm breaking inside."

Asami sighed. Akihito didn't think he'd ever heard him sigh like that in his life. It was so weird he almost got worried. Asami held out his palm. In the bluish glow of the moon, he caught a glimpse of gold.

"Say yes."

"I'm sorry, say yes to what?" He looked down at the item in question, recognizing it as a ring. His stomach did flip flops and then painfully tied itself in knots. Emotions so strong he thought he was going to double over, either into hysterical sobs or fits of laughter.

"So, we'll handle the paperwork privately. The adoption. Your parents have consented."

"I'm still confused."

"I'm asking you to be my partner, officially."

Akihito looked from the ring back to Asami's dark eyes. He was glad he couldn't see them in the darkness, because he didn't want to see them after what he was going to say, didn't have any choice but to say. He touched the hand and closed Asami's fingers over the simple gold band.

"I'm sorry Asami. Ask me again someday."

Asami didn't say anything for a moment, just looked down at his clenched fist holding the ring in his hands. "I won't ask your reasons, because I think I know them already."

"You probably do." Akihito turned back to the house, hoping Asami would follow him, but the man still stood amongst the flowers, watching the stars twinkle just like the lights in Tokyo. "You know….maybe someday, I will be the one that asks you."

"I look forward to it." He said quietly.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

As he pocketed the simple gold band with a noise that bordered on frustration (but actually wasn't), Asami pulled his phone out from his other pocket. It was a nice night. But instead of enjoying the stars, the fireflies and relishing the nice night, he punched a bunch of numbers on his phone (with his fingers and not his fists). There was always work to be done.

"What news?" He asked Kirishima, who didn't bother with much of a greeting. "How are the interviews coming?" He still hadn't replaced that skank Sudou (the now dead skank Sudou) and wasn't in any hurry to do so. Dracaena's loyal staff balked and demanded details on Sudou's death. Details he didn't feel like answering. They weren't detectives, he wasn't a suspect, and Sudou had it coming. So, since it was spring, he decided to do a little spring cleaning, starting with Dracaena's now unemployed staff. All of them.

_"I'm weeding out the dregs, so to speak. I'll have a final list for you in a week."_

"Remind me to remind you to give yourself a raise." He could almost see Kirishima with a pile of paperwork in one hand, typing on his laptop with the other. If he had a third hand, which would come in handy, he'd be pushing up his glasses with his finger.

_"Thanks …..by the way the Water Street Gang is making noise….we need to chat in person, when you have some time."_

"I don't have that luxury right now. You know what to do, bring in Akira if you have to."

_"I'll round up the usual suspects, then."_ There was a sound like paperwork rustling and Kirishima took one deep breath_. "Asami-sama, how is Takaba-kun or should I ask, how is the future Asami-san?"_ He asked carefully, but still digging for information. If he wasn't careful, Kirishima could be digging his own shallow grave if he asked the wrong question at the wrong time or the right question at the wrong time or the wrong question at the right time, or all three at the same time.

"He's still Takaba-kun, although it was a half-hearted _no_, one of these days I'll wear him out….er….down._" _He flicked a toothpick in his mouth, despite his dentist's orders. He'd worn down quite a groove in the enamel of one of his front teeth. "Not that I expected any other answer.

_"Of course you were right, but then again….you always are."_

"Of course I'm always right."

_"But you wish you weren't, at least this time."_

"Wishes are for fairy tales. When he's ready, he'll let me know, it's not like anything changes once the paperwork is signed, it's just a formality."

_"It sounds like you're buying cattle. You're expecting a lot of him. I'm not sure he will ever be ready."_

He chuckled. "You're just worried what my mother would say. I'm sure she will be overjoyed when she realizes the name of the grandson of her arch enemy will now appear in the Asami family register."

_"I'm sure she would rather have it blank. She still holds a grudge against the Yamaguchi family?"_

"Holds it tightly, in her iron fists."

_"Your mother, I hate to be the bearer of ill tidings, but she….wants to visit."_

Asami almost swallowed his toothpick. "Why do people continue to make problems for me and meddle in my life?"

_"Because they have nothing better to do, Asami sama?" _Came the automatic answer. "_She plans to just "drop by your house" when she's "in the neighborhood." I'm sure she has a nice housewarming gift for you."_

Asami could almost see Kirishima doing the _air quotes, _or pushing up his glasses, or both.

"Yeah, a bag of guilt and a sack of lies to go with it, nicely wrapped with a bow the color of blood."

He heard Kirishima chuckle and move some more papers around.

"Well, I'll just plan to be out when she plans to just "_drop by_" when she's "_in the neighborhood_." I really don't want Akihito to meet her right now, or ever, actually. He's not doing all that well."

_"Nightmares bothering him?"_

"He puts on the brave face, but that bravado is cracking, he had a panic attack last night, a bad one."

_"What did Sensei say?"_

"He planted the seeds of change, waved his magic wand, gave him permission to move on, said to rely on me, team effort….yadda yadda yadda."

_"I would have loved to been the fly on the wall during that exchange."_

"Well, the bug in the lamp caught the whole emotionally-charged tear-filled conversation."

_"Not sleeping well can make the healthiest man insane, do you want me to double the guard when you return to the office?"_

"I don't want any new faces around here, for the time being, which includes my niece. Your mother is caring for her properly, I take it?"

_"Yes, she's cute, my mother likes her. You will like her. Takaba-kun will like her. I like her. Suoh loves her! You know how he likes kids. Maybe you could take her on an outing or something – the park or the zoo?"_

"The zoo? Really? Do you really see me pushing a stroller and pointing out zoo animals for a toddler? With bodyguards following us?"

He laughed heartily. Kirishima's laugh sounded warm, letting people around him know that even if he was a hard man, he had a kind soul, sometimes. _"Sorry…I think Takaba-kun would enjoy it. Kids take to him."_

"Yeah, he likes kids, since he's almost a ki-" He stopped mid-sentence, startled (just slightly) by a loud crash and the sound of glass breaking. He quickly bolted, telling Kirishima he'd call him back, informing him while he ran…..

…not to worry (although that was impossible for Kirishima) and…..that Akihito had probably broken something.

But something was nagging at him, his Sensei's warning….

_We don't want the little Misses to hurt himself._

"Akihito!" He yelled, as he sprinted up the landing and went quickly inside. He found a sobbing Akihito on the floor of the kitchen, his red face a river of tears. No it wasn't sobbing, it sounded like keening as if he was mourning for the dead. Akihito sat in a funny protective almost fetal position, blood trickling from a small wound in his foot, shiny shards surrounding him, daring him to move, daring him to take a step.

"There's so much blood!" He yelled as his body shook and he rocked back and forth.

"Stay still, don't move." He ordered as he knelt down to pick Akihito up, the porcelain shards crunching underneath Asami's shoes. "It's only a little cut, we'll take care of it."

"There's so much blood." He said again, in between his choked and uneven breath. Asami saw that same look in his eyes that he saw last night, as if he wasn't really aware what he was doing.

"Take a breath. Breathe, come on, Akihito, breathe." He said, as he went down the hall, carrying his terrified charge and sat him on the bathroom counter.

_This is bad, this reaction to just a little blood….this is bad._

"…so much blood." He mumbled.

"Akihito, you're having a panic attack. You're in my arms, you're in our house. You're safe. Just let go. Breathe….come on, please….breathe." He said, as he held Akihito tighter to him, Akihito's heart thumped against his own chest, Akihito's body shook, perhaps remembering something Akihito himself had forgotten. "Please, Akihito, breathe. Just let go. It's all right." He begged until he was just mumbling the same mantra over and over.

_Just let go._

_Just let go._

_Just let go._

There was one deep heavy breath and Akihito's arms flew in all directions, like he was slapping away a bug. He held the hands tightly to his chest, but they were so strong, even under his full body weight, Akihito still pushed at Asami's broad chest.

Akihito's chest rose and fell rapidly as Asami just held him, listening as his breath became even. There wasn't much he could say, no soothing words to lighten the mood. As much as he wanted to kiss the tears away, like he would a child's wound, he waited until Akihito pulled back from him and looked him in the eyes. The attack came and went like a thief sent on a fool's errand.

"Are you all right?" He asked, his voice low and almost a whisper.

"I can't feel you, hold me tighter." Akihito shivered as Asami brushed the sweat covered hair out of his eyes.

"I'm holding you, Akihito, I'm holding you."

"No..no..I can't feel you. Please don't let me go….please don't send me away. I'm sorry…I'm sorry." His voice sounded so unlike Akihito, so hurt that he held Akihito tighter, wondering if he was crushing him.

"I won't. I won't, trust me, Akihito, you have to trust me." Asami held him, for what seemed a long time, but probably wasn't more than five minutes.

"Yeah." He shrugged out of Asami's arms. "I'm okay, you can let me go now." He sounded very uncomfortable, yet more like his normal self again.

"All right." He did so, but was tempted not to at first. "Let me look at that cut."

Asami pulled out the first aid kit, and Akihito winced a little when he cleaned the cut. "Reminds me of Hong Kong." Akihito said.

"Cleaning your wound?"

"You cleaned my gunshot wound on the boat, remember?"

"I remember." He remembered very clearly, as he held Akihito in his arms on that boat after so long without him. That was so long ago. They were really close to being happy then. He was really close to letting down his guard and letting Akihito into his world. Kirishima had said on the plane, as Akihito slept, his head leaning against his shoulder…

_"You know, if you're tough all the time, you forget how to be soft."_

Sometimes Kirishima and his book of quotes infuriated him, other times he was so insightful, he wondered if Kirishima was actually Confucius reincarnated.

It was moments like those and moments like now, when he could show that soft side to Akihito. The side he'd almost forgotten buried deep under rules, ultimatums and vows. It had almost disappeared completely, his soft side, under a pile of paperwork, under the pile of bodies that lay at his feet.

"I cried then too." He said finally. "I cry too much, like a girl."

Asami simply said, "My mother never cries, not even when my father died."

"Oh. My dad cries, especially at sappy movies. You know, like _Titanic_ and stuff." He replied. "Ouch." He said, when Asami slapped a band-aid on his tiny cut.

"It must be DNA." He said. "Let's eat some dinner."

"I'm not hungry." He replied forcefully.

"You WILL eat. Or I will shove it down your throat." He answered, just as forcefully.

"I'm NOT hungry." He said, his voice border lining on angry.

"Suoh informed me you didn't eat lunch either."

"My stomach is upset." Akihito shrugged and rubbed his stomach.

"Maybe you're pregnant." He said, with no hint of sarcasm. "You do look a little green."

Akihito laughed, the explosive episode turned off like a light switch. Asami had almost forgotten what Akihito's laughter sounded like. Melodic, infectious, a cheery sound that made him want to laugh too. All the worries forgotten, all the nightmares banished, at least for this moment in time.

"I like the sound of your laughter, Akihito."

"Oh really? What else do you like about me?" He asked, as he sat down at the kitchen table and casually examined the tiny Band-Aid on his foot. "Or, will you tell me."

Asami had walked right into that one. "You eat first and for each big bite, I will answer one question." He held up his index finger. "Only one." If he had to answer questions to get Akihito to eat, he would do so.

He placed a bowl of steaming rice in front of Akihito and he eyed it with a questioning look. "No chopsticks?"

"Nope, takes too long. One big spoonful first and then I'll answer."

He took one bite and frowned. "What did you put in it?" He said again.

"Protein powder."

"That's why it tastes gritty."

"Grit is good for you. Eat it anyway."

"Yes, dad." He fumed and took another spoonful in his mouth. "So, what else do you like about me?" He asked, chewing on his mouthful of rice slowly.

"The way you scream my name when you cum."

Asami expected a blush and wasn't disappointed. "Keep it clean, nasty old man."

"Old man? Another bite, the rice is getting cold." He took another mouthful.

"When's the Ferrari arriving, old man?" He teased, the spark returning to those tortured eyes.

The smirk returned to Asami's face. "Next week, it's cherry red, like your ass is going to be if you call me that again."

"Eeep." He cringed and wiggled in his chair, Asami wasn't sure if it was in anticipation of a spanking or from trying to protect his ass from one. "Cherry red? Really?"

"Another bite, or I don't answer."

"Fine." He said, and took a big spoonful and chewed slowly with a frown on his face. "Are you serious?"

"It's not a Ferrari, it's a Lamborghini."

"It's cop bait, that's what it is." He took another bite and studied Asami's face closely. "You're really having a mid-life crisis, aren't you?"

"And you….Akihito, never made it out of puberty." He pointed out, and grinned slightly before his smile fell as Akihito frowned. "What a pair we make."

"Ass." He took another bite, and sucked on the spoon, and looked at Asami attentively. "Did I ever thank you for rescuing me in Hong Kong? Not that you deserve it."

"Not that I recall."

"Oh….well, thank you."

"You're welcome." He said, and he bent down to clean up the shards of the vase that somehow got broken. How, he couldn't figure out. "I can think of some ways you can make it up to me."

"You're nasty." He scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry about the vase, it….uh…slipped out of my hands." He said, but he took another bite of rice, slowly chewing and putting down his spoon.

"You owe big time, junior." He said. He dumped the shards in the trash and grabbed a dishcloth and ripped it two strips. Akihito frowned. "That was a priceless knock-off. One in a million."

Akihito chuckled, just slightly, under his breath. "What are you doing?"

"Another bite and then I'll tell you."

"Fine." He said, and he took a small mouthful. "So….what are you doing with..." He pointed to the dishtowels. "Hey!"

"Nookie is not in my vocabulary." He said, and he used the strips to tie Akihito's hands to the chair. He did it quickly and efficiently as always, Akihito didn't even have time to fight it. "And your safety word is _yes."_

"My safety word is….I'm going to kick your ass." He said, gritting his teeth.

"Do you trust me Akihito?" He said, putting the rice bowl between him and Akihito, who was looking only slightly annoyed. Although he knew the answer already, he wanted to hear it from those soft pink lips. Maybe the answer would be yes. Although he realized it wouldn't be.

"No." He replied quickly. Akihito was blushing, the redness building, starting at his cheeks and radiating to his ears.

"Why don't you trust me? You know I won't hurt you."

"That is doubtful. Let me go." He struggled a bit, the chair rocking on its legs.

"Take a bite." He said, and pushed a large spoonful of rice in his direction.

"I'll bite you." But Akihito took one bite, the grains of rice sticking to one another and to his face.

"Tsk tsk, such a messy eater. Here let me get that for you, since your hands are…busy." He said, and reached for a napkin. Just as he was about to wipe it away, his tongue came out and flicked the grain of rice on Akihito's cheek and into his mouth. "Tasty."

Akihito's eyes widened. If they got any wider you could land planes on them. "What are you doing?"

"It's pet feeding time." He said, and held out another bite.

Akihito gripped the spoon with his teeth, and growled, his eyes lighting up with frustration. "One more bite…means you answer one more question, Asami."

Asami laughed. His laughter rang through the house. It was like thunder, the sound of his deep boisterous laughter. "All right, mad kitty." Akihito cringed and of course Asami tried not to smirk, but he couldn't help it, so he smirked. "One last question."

"Why did you ask me to…to…..be your partner? Why now?" His eyes were clear, searching for some answer in Asami's own face.

He thought for a moment before answering. "Because if I fit you with a collar and a bell, I can't get at that delicious neck….although you would look so cute in it." He leaned over and flicked Akihito neck with his tongue, leaving a shiny wet spot begging to be nibbled on. Akihito gasped and wiggled again. "A ring lets the world know you're taken, right? At least, that was the original intent of the ritual."

"That's it? That's the reason?" Akihito snorted. "That's so romantic, Asami, really." He said with disdain and sarcasm. "I thought it might be…."

"Be….?"

"Some other reason, nevermind."

His eyebrow rose in question, but he didn't push it. "Do you want me to romance you, then?" He said, and kneeled down in front of Akihito. "With sweet words? With poetry? I didn't know you were into girly things like that." He said teasingly of course. If his boy wanted romance, he'd get it, in spades. He gave him the _Asami Super Duper Erotic Glare_, (patent pending) just to start things off.

Asami should bottle his pheromones and call it _Asami's Sex Juice_ and sell it like perfume. It would have a warning on the label (in small letters so no one bothered with it) that read: _Might cause spontaneous pregnancy, drunken fetish orgies, screwing in public, loss of virginity and virulent cases of VD._ People would buy it anyway, knowing the side effects, because it would have his picture on it. It was all in how you marketed it.

"You're eyes are scaring me, stop leering!"

"But you look so delicious, right in front me, like a banquet." He palmed Akihito's cock through his jeans, delighted to find Akihito half-hard and getting harder under his touch. Akihito moaned but tried to stifle it. "Your lips have bewitched me." Asami said, rubbing a bit softer, appreciating the scent of lust that put the roses in the garden to shame.

"What…I don't…." Akihito's head tilted back as Asami leaned and nipped that soft neck very gently.

"I seek heaven between your thighs."

"What? What are you saying?" He said and caught Asami's eyes. There was no mistaking that look of desire in Akihito's eyes. The softness that was there always betrayed what came out of his mouth.

He kissed him, just lightly, barely brushing Akihito's lips, his lips barely opening to taste that eager mouth. "Of the very instant I saw you my heart flew to land at your feet."

"Asami. Untie me." He shoulders rose and fell with each breath.

"The line is….take me, lusty gentleman, I yearn for your touch."

He said one word with all seriousness. "No." He snapped back into reality as Asami pulled back from him and flicked a toothpick into his mouth.

"Too much romance?" Asami chuckled, reached in his pocket and pulled out the ring and held it out. "How about this. Say yes, and I'll untie you, and then you can have your way with me. We can do all the naughty things you wish, my little kitten."

If Akihito wasn't already blushing, he'd be blushing. "I've forgotten the question." He replied, suddenly taking a real interest in the ceiling fan, and not Asami's huge tent in his pants.

"You know I can throw you over my shoulder and carry you to the lawyers. Then stand there and look menacing until you sign the papers."

"And you would. You'd somehow blackmail me into it."

"No, Akihito. I would not. You'd never trust me again." He sucked on his toothpick, his favorite flavor. "Say yes, what's stopping you?"

"You say I'd never trust you….when were you going to trust me?" He took a breath, his chest rising and falling, his exhale audible in the quiet kitchen. "When were you going to tell me about your niece?

"You listened…you….listened to my conversation?" He found his voice rising in irritation, just slightly.

"Your voice carries in the garden. Keep that in mind if you want to have clandestine conversations there."

"Shit." He ran a finger through his hair, realizing he still had the ring between his fingers. He dropped it on the counter and it wobbled around before landing in front of Akihito. Akihito looked at it and then back at Asami.

"You do remember I'm still a journalist. I can't help it, but eavesdropping, well…..I tend to enjoy finding out information before everybody else does."

"I was waiting to tell you." He said lower under his breath. "For the right moment."

"You want a….how would you put it…..oh….a little mother to raise your niece, is that it?"

"Together. We'd raise her together."

"And baby makes three, huh. We are barely a couple and you want to bring a child into this….this so called relationship." Akihito swallowed hard. "Untie me, you bastard."

"Can I finish what I started later?" He asked, his whispered in Akihito's ear as he untied his knots.

Akihito picked up the ring and rolled it between his fingers. "No." He put it back down gently and rubbed his wrists. "Tell me everything Asami."

He told him. He told him everything. About his father and his aunt, about his half-brother, about Decoration AKA Rumpelstiltskin (leaving the part out about his eye), Oyabun's price on his head, about Decoration's plan. His half-brother's murder. Akihito nodded and listened intently, his eyes never widening in judgment, nor looking away in revulsion. When Asami finished his long-winded story, he said finally…

"If it wasn't for Decoration, you'd find me a grave man."

He nodded. "I get it….and the child?"

"Congratulations, it's a girl. Her name is Mimi and Kirishima's mother is taking care of her, for now."

He took a deep breath, the cleansing kind that cleared his mind. His dojo master, Shimada Sensei was probably laughing at him right now, from the beyond, murmuring one of his favorite quotes in his ear:

_"Are you the one wearing another man's face? Even though it fits you very well, if you know the man underneath, it clearly isn't right." _

Akihito rose and got out two glasses. He put whiskey in one glass, water in another and set the whiskey in front of Asami, the water in front of him. "I'm not supposed to drink. Sensei's orders." He said, breaking the silence.

"Uh huh." He said, and took a swallow of the offered drink.

"I don't see how I'm going to learn to trust you, Asami, if you don't trust me." He sipped the water until it was gone and slammed it down on the counter. "I'm going to bed. Alone. I have a lot to think about."

"Don't go to bed mad."

"I'm not mad. I'm just..." Asami thought he was going to end that sentence with _confused._

"I'm just….disappointed. I guess I'm not worth trusting, after all." He said, and foregoing the elevator, he made his way up the stairs slowly, clutching the rail, the prosthetic making a soft click on the wooden staircase.

Asami finished his drink and pocketed the ring. That clock was still ticking, and he, as powerful as he was, could do nothing to stop it.

End of Part 2- Part 3 Coming Soon! (No title yet)

"The time is out of joint. O cursèd spite,

That ever I was born to set it right!"

Hamlet, Act I, Scene V


End file.
